Boko Haram kills 15 again in Borno village

(NIGERIA) Boko Haram militants have stormed Kautikari, in Borno State, near the Cameroon border, killing at least 15 people. Kautikari is just 10 kilometres from Chibok, where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted on April 14, 2014, and remained captives till date.

This was just as the Defence Headquarters said it was probing allegation of the incursion of Cameroon’s military into the Nigerian airspace while pursuing the insurgents at the weekend.

Witnesses and a security sources said, however, that the insurgents had targeted Kautikari in the Monday night attack, and opened fire on the residents.

“They were about twenty, well-armed. They came in four-wheel drive vehicles and some motorcycles. Initially, I thought they were soldiers,” survivor Jonah Umaru was quoted in an agency report as saying.

“The man running behind me was gunned down as I was fleeing. Afterwards, there were 15 people lying dead in the streets,” he added.

Boko Haram gunmen were said to have kidnapped 172 women and children and killed 35 other people this month near the same area.

Underscoring the regional threat posed by the group, Cameroon’s Army said it had killed at least 41 Boko Haram militants as it fought off a wave of attacks along its border with Nigeria over the weekend.

Also, the Defence Headquarters has explained that the military has been conducting coordinated air and land operations against Boko Haram in some parts of the North-East, promising to investigate allegations that Cameroon bombers violated the nation’s airspace while pursuing insurgents.

In a terse statement on the Defence Headquarters Twitter page yesterday, Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade said, the “ongoing highly coordinated air operations conducted by the Nigerian Air Force are achieving desired results. There are no indications of any foreign force engaging in any part of Nigeria.”

In obvious reference to reports that Cameroon’s Armed Forces pursued about 1,000 suspected Boko Haram fighters, who attacked the north of the country into Nigerian territory on Sunday, Olukolade said: “We will investigate claims of airstrikes by a foreign force on our soil.”

-NEWSWATCH TIMES-