Nigeria (BN24) – Boko Haram militants attacked a remote community in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state, killing nine people and injuring four others, regional authorities said Sunday, marking the latest deadly assault in an area grappling with renewed extremist violence.
The assault targeted the Malam Fatori community near Nigeria’s border with Chad, roughly 270 kilometers (167 miles) from the state capital, Maiduguri, according to Borno state governor Babagana Zulum. The governor, who did not specify exactly when the attack occurred, dispatched local government commissioner Sugun Mai Mele to the area to deliver a warning to residents against any cooperation with insurgents.
“Anyone found collaborating with the insurgents to bring harm or attack to the people of Malam Fatori will be cursed,” Mele said during the visit. He added that the government is implementing measures to better secure the community and prevent future raids.
The assault comes amid a worrying resurgence of Boko Haram operations in Nigeria’s northeast, where fighters have increasingly overrun military positions, planted roadside bombs and carried out raids on civilians in recent months. The renewed attacks are fueling fears that the region could slide back toward the scale of violence seen during Boko Haram’s peak in the mid-2010s, despite military claims of steady progress.
Last month, a suspected female suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a restaurant in the Konduga area of Borno state, killing at least 10 people and wounding several more.
Since launching its campaign in 2009 to impose a radical version of Islamic law and eradicate Western education, Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed some 35,000 civilians and displaced over 2 million in Nigeria’s northeast alone, according to United Nations estimates. The violence has also destabilized neighboring countries across the Lake Chad region.
Beyond the northeast, Africa’s most populous nation is confronting escalating security crises in its north-central and northwestern states, where attacks by armed groups have left hundreds dead or wounded in recent months.
