Gunmen suspected of being linked to the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) group killed 10 people in the troubled region of Borno State in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, it has been learned. with local militias.
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The 10 victims, nine men and one woman, were recovering metals from burnt vehicles during military operations in the village of Goni Kurmi, near the city of Bama, when they were attacked, the source said. AFP two sources within the militias.
“
All ten people were killed
,” said militia leader Babakura Kolo.
"
The victims were in the village looking for metal when they encountered the terrorists who shot them
," Kolo said.
The bodies of the victims were recovered by the civil force and transported to Bama, according to Ibrahim Liman, another militiaman who gave an identical assessment of the attack.
The Nigerian army, deployed in the region, has not yet commented on this attack.
On Friday, suspected Iswap fighters also attacked the town of Monguno (northeast), killing three militiamen and kidnapping three civilians, according to security and humanitarian sources.
At the beginning of June, at least 23 men belonging to a community of scrap dealers had been executed by suspected jihadists in the same region, near the Chadian border.
These scrap dealers, who travel a lot in search of scrap metals, are frequently accused by jihadists of informing the authorities about the movements of militants in the region, the cradle of the Islamist group Boko Haram, from which Iswap seceded in 2016. .
At the end of April, around thirty scrap dealers had been killed by suspected Iswap jihadists.
The Nigerian army has recently intensified its ground and air operations against Iswap and Boko Haram fighters, notably managing to eliminate several of their commanders, according to the military staff.
Jihadist violence in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 claimed the lives of 40,000 people and forced two million others to flee their homes, according to the UN.
