Boko Haram militants kill 45 in north-eastern Borno

© FLICKR/ KUNLE OGUNFUYI

Boko Haram militants

At least 45 people were killed on Tuesday by suspected Boko Haram militants in a remote village in the north-eastern Borno state of Nigeria, according to sources from the military and authorised vigilante groups.

The insurgents started shooting into houses in Njaba at about 5.30am, local time, a military source in Maiduguri told Reuters on Thursday. The village is close to the town of Damboa and about 60 miles south of the state capital, Maiduguri.

"The attack was not immediately known because the village is very remote and our men couldn't access the area," the source said.

Boko Haram's six-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic state in the northeast of Nigeria has killed thousands and displaced over 1.5 million people.

The group seized an area around 11,700 sq miles last year, which Nigeria's ill-equipped army has struggled to take back. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election on 28 March, has been heavily criticised for the failure to crush the insurgents.

Elections were postponed for six weeks from 14 February for security reasons. Since the delay, Chadian troops cooperating with the Nigerians have reclaimed some important towns in Borno. The army has also been able to push the militants out of some territories in neighbouring Adamawa and Yobe states.

A senior local government official in Damboa, about 12 miles from Njaba, who declined to be named, said that most of the victims were teenagers.

Ibrahim Wagu, who lives in Maiduguri but who was from Njaba said that two of his relatives were killed.

"My older brother and my sister's first son were killed. I can't even go to there now," he said.