Boko Haram kills 43 in Borno raids

- Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 43 people and burnt down
three villages in Borno State, residents told AFP Thursday, the latest
in an upsurge of attacks by the Islamist militants.

Dozens of rebels on motorcycles stormed Matangale, Buraltima and
Dirmanti in restive Borno state on Tuesday, opening fire on villagers
before looting and burning homes, fleeing residents said.

News of the assault was slow to emerge due to poor communication in
the region after Boko Haram destroyed telecoms masts in previous
attacks.

"They came around 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) on 20 motorcycles, three
gunmen on each, and attacked Matangale before proceeding to
Buraltima and Dirmanti," said resident Dala Tungushe.

"They killed 43 people and burnt all the houses in the three villages
after looting food supplies," Tungushe, who fled Matangale to Biu,
some 90 kilometres (56 miles) away.
Matangale was worst hit by the attack as the attackers opened fire
at an open well outside the village where residents had gathered to
fetch drinking water and do their laundry..

"The Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on the crowd at the well where
they killed around 16 people," said Bulama Karuye, another resident.
"In all, we lost 43 people in the attacks. All the three villages were
completely burnt."

He added the number of casualties could have been much higher had
some of the villagers not been away at a weekly market around 40
kilometres away.

Hundreds of residents of the affected villages, particularly women
and children, fled to nearby Damboa town where they had sought
refuge in a primary school, both Tungushe and Karuye said.

They said the attackers came from nearby Sambisa Forest, a major
Boko Haram stronghold from where hundreds of women and children
kidnapped by the militants were rescued during recent military
operations.

Troops and local hunters from Damboa pursued the fleeing attackers
into the bush and a gunfight erupted.
"The soldiers and the hunters brought back a pickup truck and some
motorcycles they recovered from the Boko Haram attackers but we
don't know how many of the gunmen they killed," Tungushe said.

More than 150 people have been killed by Boko Haram since President
Muhammadu Buhari took power on May 29, vowing to crush the
militants and end their bloody six-year insurgency.

- AFP