10 June 2020
BY AFP
Tuesday killed
59 people in a raid on a herding village in northeast Nigeria's Borno state,
local militia and residents told AFP.
Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)
drove into remote Felo village in Gubio district around 1400GMT, shooting and
crushing fleeing residents under their vehicles.
"Fifty nine bodies were recovered from the raid on the
village," anti-jihadist militia leader Babakura Kolo said.
"Some of them were shot and others were crushed under the wheels," he
added.
The attack is believed to be a reprisal for the killing of
jihadist fighters by local vigilantes protecting the villagers' herd from theft
by the militants, a local leader in the village said.
"We have lost 59 kinsmen in such a short time," said
the local leader who asked not to be named for his personal safety.
The jihadists have been stealing livestock from the village, prompting residents
to form a militia force to end the theft, said another militiaman Ibrahim
Liman, who gave the same toll.
The vigilantes have been "hunting
for the insurgents" in the bushes, killing some of them in gunfights,
Liman said.
Gubio, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the
regional capital Maiduguri, has been repeatedly targeted by the jihadists.
The incessant attacks prompted the
authorities to send more than 100 vigilantes and local hunters to protect the
town and nearby areas against incursions from ISWAP.
ISWAP is a splinter faction that broke away from Boko Haram in
2016.
It has intensified attacks against the military in the last two
years, repeatedly carrying out deadly strikes against soldiers.
In recent months there has been an increase in attacks on
civilians blamed on the group.
The decade-long conflict has killed 36,000 people and displaced
around two million from their homes in the northeast.
The violence has spread to neighbouring
Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the
insurgents.
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