MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA
Islamic extremist rebels have killed at least seven people in an attack in northeast Borno state in Nigeria, witnesses told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The rebels attacked Kautukari
village in the Chibok area of Borno on Tuesday evening, said residents. The
attack happened at the same time that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
was in the state to meet with survivors of jihadi violence.
The Chibok area is 115
kilometers (71 miles) away from Maiduguri, the state capital, where Guterres
met with former militants being reintegrated into society and thousands of
people displaced by the insurgency.
"They came in large
number with superior firepower (and) took over the community," said Hassan
Chibok, a community leader. Troops from a nearby military base were deployed to
repel the attack but "the damage had been done," Chibok said, adding
that "casualties are up to 10."
Another resident Yana Galang
said at least seven people were killed in the latest violence before the
Nigerian military intervened.
Nigerian police did not
immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the attack.
Nigeria, Africa's most
populous country with 206 million people, continues to grapple with a
10-year-old insurgency in the northeast by Islamic extremist rebels of Boko
Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province. The extremists
are fighting to establish Shariah law and to stop Western education.
More than 35,000 people have
died and millions have been displaced by the extremist violence, according to
the U.N. Development Program.
Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari said earlier this week that the war against the extremists is
"approaching its conclusion," citing continued military airstrikes
and the mass defection of thousands of the fighters, some of whom analysts say
are laying down their arms because of infighting within the jihadi group.
The violence, however,
continues in border communities and areas closer to the Lake Chad region, the
stronghold of the Islamic State-linked group, ISWAP.
"Things are getting
worse" in Kautukari village in Chibok and adjourning areas closer to the
forest, said community leader Chibok, saying the extremists' presence near the
forest is a contributing factor.
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