At least 20 civilians were killed and 14 others injured Sunday in an attack by Boko Haram fighters on a village in northeastern Nigeria, militiamen and residents said on Monday.
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The insurgents, arrived on board several pick-ups, fired a rocket launcher at the village of Gajiganna, in the state of Borno in the grip of a jihadist insurgency which has lasted for more than 10 years, while the inhabitants were preparing to break the Ramadan fast, the sources said. " Boko Haram hit Gajiganna yesterday with RPGs (rocket launchers, editor's note) and killed 20 people, " Babakura Kolo, head of a local militia engaged alongside the army against the jihadists, told AFP. " Fourteen people were seriously injured and several buildings were destroyed during the attack", He explained. Gajiganna resident Adam Bura said he attended the funeral of 20 civilians killed in the attack, adding that the wounded had been evacuated Monday at the public hospital in Maiduguri, the regional capital.
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Fighters arrived at the village entrance on Sunday around 5:15 p.m. GMT, where they started launching rockets as residents prepared to break the Ramadan fast, another resident, Bukar, told AFP. Gaji, injured during the attack. " I lost my wife in the attack. Me and my three children were seriously injured, "by projectiles," said Bukar Gaji on the phone from his hospital bed. " My house was completely destroyed, like many other houses, by the rockets they fired from the outskirts of the village, " he added.
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Gajiganna, located only 50 km from Maiduguri, has been repeatedly targeted by jihadists. In February, insurgents killed a soldier in an attack on a military checkpoint in the village. The insurgency that has spread to neighboring Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, has left more than 36,000 dead and two million displaced since 2009.
