Boko Haram Militants Suspected Of Killing 20 People In Northeast Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram assailants gunned down 20 people Wednesday in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, local sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The incident came a day after Nigerian troops killed at least 150 Boko Haram militants in Borno and neighboring state of Adamawa.

The gunmen opened fire on four cars outside Jingalta village, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of state capital Maiduguri, killing all 20 passengers, a vigilante group member and a local told AFP.

"We received information of an attack by Boko Haram gunmen on four cars near Jingalta village where they shot dead all 20 occupants of the vehicles before setting the cars ablaze," Babakura Kolo, member of a local vigilante group, reportedly said.

Kolo told AFP that gunmen also looted and burnt down the village, whose residents abandoned the place after the attack. Jibir Hassan, a commercial bus driver, who reached the site following the incident, confirmed the death toll to the news agency.

Late Tuesday, self-defense fighters along with Nigerian soldiers killed 150 Boko Haram militants and seized guns and explosives used in suicide bombings, the Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday. They also rescued 36 children and women kidnapped by the Islamist fundamentalist group, which has carried out attacks since the past six years and has killed 20,000 people so far, according to AP.