Au moins 63 morts dans une attaque de jihadistes au Nigeria
Jihadists killed at least 63 people in an attack Friday evening in a town in northeastern Nigeria, the governor of Borno state said.
The violence took place in the town of Darul Jamal, which houses a military base on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, in an area ravaged by jihadist attacks.
Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno State, said five soldiers were among those killed, a figure confirmed to AFP by a security source.
"At this stage we confirm the deaths of 63 people, civilians and military personnel combined," he added.
Previous reports put the death toll at 55 to 64.
Although jihadist violence has declined in Nigeria since the worst clashes with Boko Haram in 2013-2015, rebels, particularly from the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), continue to launch attacks in rural areas of the northeast.
Witnesses said the attack began in the evening, with dozens of assailants arriving on motorcycles, firing assault rifles and setting fire to houses.
"They came screaming and shooting at everything that moved," said Malam Bukar, who fled into the countryside with his wife and children.
- "Bodies everywhere" -
"When we came back, there were bodies everywhere," he added.
Many of the victims were families recently arrived from a camp for displaced people in Bama, which authorities closed this year.
"The government told us we would be safe here," said Hajja Fati, a mother who lost her brother in the attack. "Now we are burying our loved ones again," she added.
The area is known to be under the control of Boko Haram commander Ali Ngulde. A security source told AFP that he led the attack.
An army spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The air force, however, released a statement to local media, claiming to have killed around 30 "terrorists" who had engaged in combat with Nigerian forces in this town, also known as Dar-El-Jamal.
Boko Haram has been waging a bloody insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009 to establish a caliphate, a fight that has left around 40,000 dead and more than two million displaced.
ISWAP and Boko Haram have recently stepped up their attacks on military bases, particularly in Borno State, the epicenter of the jihadist conflict that began in 2009.
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