Boko Haram Disguised as Clerics Kills 24 in Borno

Boko Haram militants disguised as preachers killed at least 24 persons and wounded several others in an attack in Borno State, a military source and witness said on Monday.

The attackers reportedly arrived in cars late on Sunday and gathered people at a mosque in the remote village of Kwajafa, pretending to preach Islam. They then opened fire on them, an eyewitness, Simeon Buba, said.

The group has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds, although a military operation against them by Nigeria and her neighbours, Chad, Cameroun and Niger in the past two months, has wrested back much of the territory it controlled.

“People didn’t know the Boko Haram men came for attack because they lied to our people that they came for preaching,” said Buba in a telephone conversation.

“They opened fire on them and killed many people,” he said, adding that houses were also set on fire.

Some people were being treated for gunshot wounds and burns at an undisclosed hospital in the state town of Biu on Monday, a source there said.