Rather than wane, the reign of bloodletting by suspected members of the Boko Haram waxed stronger at the weekend, in spite of onslaught against them by the military.
In the dead of the night on Sunday, a band of suspected members of the sect killed 13 people in an attack on Malari village in Borno state, according to witnesses.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported a local farmer Moha Saleh as saying that 27 people were also injured in the attack, which began when the militants stormed the village at around 1:00 am.
“They also set many houses ablaze after accusing us of telling soldiers their whereabouts,” he told AFP.
A local vigilante, Goni Musi, confirmed the death toll.
Later on Sunday, military authorities said they had carried out air strikes in the region to repel an attack by Boko Haram and had killed a “large number” of the extremists.
The air raids came as Nigeria and its neighbours prepared to launch a new multinational force to combat Boko Haram, in the face of the group’s escalating violence in the region.
The Nigerian Air Force said it had “successfully repelled an attack on Bita village by the Boko Haram terrorist group” in a combined operation with ground troops after spotting militants planning an assault.
“Consequently, a large number of the insurgents were killed and several others were injured,” it said in a statement, without disclosing when the incident took place.
Boko Haram has staged a string of strikes — often by female bombers — targeting markets in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon that have killed and wounded scores in the past month.
The new 8,700-strong multinational force — made up of troops from Nigeria as well as Cameroon, Chad and Niger — is expected to go into action soon, officials say.
