#News: Suspected Boko Haram Militants Attack Nigerian Border Town

[HuffingtonPost]

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram  militants attacked a Nigerian border town in the restive  northeast on Monday, setting fire to houses and killing an  unknown number of people, witnesses and government sources said.                

Hours after the raid started on Damasak, gunmen still roamed  the area, with many locals seeking to flee into neighboring  Niger, just to the north of the town.                

It was the third major attack over the last week in  Nigeria's Borno State, which have already seen close to 100  people die, including more than 25 people, mostly fishermen,  shot dead in a remote community over the weekend.                

"The insurgents came at about 9.00 am and fired shots into  houses to force people out. They are still there up till now and  still firing shots. Many people may have died. I am talking to  you now from the bush," witness Bukar Aji told Reuters.                

Musa Himma, a resident, told Reuters by phone that some 15  people alone had drowned trying to swim to safety across a  river. Another witness said many had been killed by gunmen who  surrounded the town arriving in pick-up trucks and motorcycles.                

Borno is one of three states under a state of emergency due  to the five-year insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram, which  is trying to carve out a caliphate.                

A military source, who spoke to a colleague in Damasak, said  that the militants had tried to attack the town last week.                

"They came back today in large numbers, but our troops  cannot curtail them," the source said.     (Reporting by Isaac Abrak in Kaduna and Lanre Ola in Maiduguri,  Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
Source: huffingtonPost