AFP, Kano :
Boko Haram carried out a fresh wave of massacres in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, locals said, killing nearly 200 people in 48 hours of violence President Muhammadu Buhari blasted as “inhuman and barbaric”.
The militants have staged multiple attacks across restive Borno state since Wednesday, gunning down worshippers at evening Ramadan prayers, shooting women in their homes, and dragging men from their beds in the dead of night.
A young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she blew herself up in a mosque in Borno. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Boko Haram has used both men and young women and girls as human bombs in the past.
And as night fell, Nigerian troops battled “hordes of Boko Haram gunmen” who seemed set on attacking the state capital Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist Islamist movement.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest wave of killings… describing them as most inhuman and barbaric,” the presidency said in a statement.
The bloodshed is the worst since Buhari came to power in May, vowing to root out the insurgency that has claimed more than 15,000 lives.
Up to 50 armed men on motorbikes stormed the village of Mussa in the latest atrocity on Friday, shooting villagers and burning their homes, survivor Bitrus Dangana told AFP.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande said on Friday he is ready to organise a new summit of nations fighting Boko Haram, a militant group that has suffered defeats in recent months in its campaign to forge an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria.
Hollande was speaking after talks in the capital of Cameroon with President Paul Biya. Cameroon is part of a regional group of nations including Nigeria, Niger and Chad that began a campaign against Boko Haram this year.
“Nigeria and Cameroon need to have the best relations … to work together. This corresponds well with the spirit we had at our last summit in Paris to take important decisions about Boko Haram, whose threat is getting stronger,” Hollande said.
Boko Haram carried out a fresh wave of massacres in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, locals said, killing nearly 200 people in 48 hours of violence President Muhammadu Buhari blasted as “inhuman and barbaric”.
The militants have staged multiple attacks across restive Borno state since Wednesday, gunning down worshippers at evening Ramadan prayers, shooting women in their homes, and dragging men from their beds in the dead of night.
A young female suicide bomber also killed 12 worshippers when she blew herself up in a mosque in Borno. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Boko Haram has used both men and young women and girls as human bombs in the past.
And as night fell, Nigerian troops battled “hordes of Boko Haram gunmen” who seemed set on attacking the state capital Maiduguri, the birthplace of the extremist Islamist movement.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest wave of killings… describing them as most inhuman and barbaric,” the presidency said in a statement.
The bloodshed is the worst since Buhari came to power in May, vowing to root out the insurgency that has claimed more than 15,000 lives.
Up to 50 armed men on motorbikes stormed the village of Mussa in the latest atrocity on Friday, shooting villagers and burning their homes, survivor Bitrus Dangana told AFP.
Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande said on Friday he is ready to organise a new summit of nations fighting Boko Haram, a militant group that has suffered defeats in recent months in its campaign to forge an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria.
Hollande was speaking after talks in the capital of Cameroon with President Paul Biya. Cameroon is part of a regional group of nations including Nigeria, Niger and Chad that began a campaign against Boko Haram this year.
“Nigeria and Cameroon need to have the best relations … to work together. This corresponds well with the spirit we had at our last summit in Paris to take important decisions about Boko Haram, whose threat is getting stronger,” Hollande said.
