AFP – Islamist insurgents last week killed a total of 40 people and wounded a dozen others in two separate incidents in restive northeast Nigeria, a local official said Monday.
Some 70 gunmen stormed the town of Bama in Borno state on a convoy of motorcycles and pick-up trucks late Thursday, said Baba Shehu from the area’s local government.
“They shot … 27 persons and injured 12. About 300 houses were burnt,” Shehu told reporters in Borno’s capital Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.



“Immediately people saw the gunmen, they (locals) started fleeing the town but the insurgents opened fire on them,” said Shehu, adding that the wounded were receiving treatment at a local hospital.
In a separate incident on Saturday, Shehu said 13 people travelling on a bus in the same area were “ambushed by the (Islamist) militants and murdered in cold blood.”
“The attackers took the travellers unawares … Some of the passengers escaped unhurt from the vehicle but were pursued by the insurgents and killed,” he added.
No other details were provided about the attack.
Bama and other remote parts of northeast Nigeria have seen a series of brutal attacks in recent weeks which have left hundreds dead, despite official assurances that the insurgents have been weakened by an ongoing military offensive.
Details of massacres in Borno have typically been slow to emerge.
The mobile phone network in the area has been switched off since May, when President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency across the northeast and launched the military operation aimed at crushing at the Islamists’ four-year uprising.
Shehu, who blamed the Bama attack on Boko Haram, said the gunmen also destroyed 40 shops, killed livestock and stole roughly four million naira ($25,000, 19,000 euros) from Bama residents.
Wedding massacre
Also on Saturday in Borno, suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed 30 people in a wedding party, including the groom.
The group was on its way back to Borno from a neighbouring state when the attackers opened fire, leaving a trail of bodies lying on the road, residents said.
Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north but its demands have shifted repeatedly.
The group’s purported leader, Abubakar Shekau, has been declared a global terrorist by the United States, which has put a $7-million bounty on his head.
In 2009, the insurgency was largely concentrated in Borno but later spread across the wider north and as far south as the capital Abuja.
A Human Rights Watch toll earlier this year said the ongoing conflict has cost more than 3,600 lives, including those killed by security forces who have been accused of major abuses, although the current figure is certainly much higher.
The military maintains that its massive offensive against the Islamists, which has included aerial bombings, has left the group in disarray and contained the rebel fighters in remote parts of the northeast.
But a major attack last month in Damaturu, the heavily fortified capital of northeastern Yobe state, cast doubt on that claim.
Shekau claimed responsibility for the October 24 attack in a video released on Sunday and obtained by AFP.
On December 14, Jonathan will have to decide whether to extend the state of emergency when its six-month mandate expires.
Some analysts say the emergency measures and the military assault have been effective, while others counter that Boko Haram could still regroup and resume attacks on a range of targets across the country.

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shekau again?

I don't think fighting to create sharia in the north is the aim of boko haram.
Or how does one rationalize senseless killing of any living being that isn't a member of the sect irrespective of tribe, religion or political affiliation.
This clearly shows a group bent on terrorizing and de stabilizing the north.
I doubt if they even have time to pray the 5 time mandatory prayer for them to go out early to kill people prayer at dawn in mosque.
Even during the previous attacks at security installations that spanned from afternoon to night mean they would miss the last 3 prayers.
I'm sure those folks would be on drugs.
All these extremists all over the globe would just be blowing up cars, mosques, and different places killing indiscriminately for no just cause.
I think saudi arabia needs to convene a global Islamic conference or each countries should be regulating religion and vet what clerics say to their congregation.

Who counted the number of bH members
Just asking

But on a serious note, these BH wil never cease killing, even if what they are asking for is granted, because blood thirst is already running in their stream

is hightym we scrap nigeria forces, gun nid 2 be legalised 4 self defence

Mtchwww, am tied of this Boko haram tinxx, arrest Obasanjo and Jerry Gana, and the cases will end up as they are the main leaders of boko haram!

Nigeria is totally f.u.cked!!

God help nigeria

May God helep us.

Keeps getting worse

Very unfortunate.

Boko haram is doing bad thing.

The northern leaders said they would make the present government ungovernable, they are killing innocent Nigerians.

Chamackh: The northern leaders said they would make the present government ungovernable, they are killing innocent Nigerians.

What has the Northern leaders to do wit dis. I ve said it over and over dat d SOE is not d Panacea to stoping Boko Haram.
The FG shud appologise to d Northern Elders, grant Boko Haram Amnesty, release all setained Boko Haram members, suspend d SOE and I tink Boko Haram wud ceasefire

Usbeel: Mtchwww, am tied of this Boko haram tinxx, arrest Obasanjo and Jerry Gana, and the cases will end up as they are the main leaders of boko haram!

y shd they arrest Obasanjo and Jerry Gana ? Have y forgotten that late former National Security Adviser Andrew Azazi said feedeefee is boko haram and vice versa

is no longer news,we ar nw used to hearing bh kilings everyday in d north

I believe it is time to legalize the use of gun in the North. If everybody has gun just like those blood thirsty idioots, both sides will be afraid of each other. This is why such thing can't happen in the states because the attacker and the "attackee" will be conscious of each other. I know some people will say its dangerous to have guns everywhere but tell me, which one is more dangerous