Suspected Boko Haram attack kills dozens in Nigeria

People gathered on Tuesday (September 3) in northeastern Nigeria, to bury the victims of a suspected Boko Haram attack in Yobe state.

Suspected Islamist militants belonging to the group roared into Mafa village on motorcycles on Sunday afternoon, opening fire on a market and setting shops and homes ablaze.

An early estimate from a military official said at least 37 people were killed in the attack.

But residents and officials said the death toll could be even higher, with villagers still missing and feared dead after fighters chased them into the bush.

A Yobe police spokesperson told Reuters the attack was an apparent retaliation for the killing of two suspected Boko Haram fighters by local vigilantes.

General Dahiru Abdulsallam is a special adviser on security matters in Yobe state.

‘’Coward Boko Haram that went and attacked innocent citizens in their villages and killed them, so we came to bury them and to also condole their families and relations as well as the local government.’’

Yobe is one of three states at the frontline of an insurgency that has lasted 15 years.

Thousands of Nigerians have been killed and more than two million people have been displaced.

Reuters