Dozens killed in Nigerian town as Boko Haram attacks intensify

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have rounded up and shot dead dozens of people in a raid in a town in northeast Nigeria, military and local sources said, part of a resurgence of attacks in Borno state in the past month. A member of a local self-defence group said he had been told by a colleague who fled the attack and then returned to the town that 97 bodies had been found, some badly charred because the attackers had set houses on fire.

There was no immediate official comment from the security forces, or a confirmed death toll. Separately, a young female suicide bomber killed at least 12 people when she blew herself up in a mosque in the northeast of the country, a witness said. The witness, a member of a vigilante group aiding the military against Boko Haram, said the girl was "aged around 15" and was seen outside the mosque before afternoon prayers yesterday.

Boko Haram insurgents have killed thousands of people and left about 1.5 million others displaced in a six-year-old insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate in the northeast of Nigeria. A further seven people were injured in the attack. At the end of last year the group controlled an area roughly the size of Belgium but lost huge chunks of territory when the military went on the offensive in the months before a presidential election in March. By then, the military said it had taken back all but three out of 20 local government areas previously controlled by the Islamist militants. But the last month has seen a resurgence in attacks, many in Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria. New President Muhammadu Buhari moved the army's command centre for the campaign against Boko Haram to the Borno state capital after coming to power.

On Tuesday, gunmen attacked two nearby villages elsewhere in Borno state killing 48 people, according to a police spokesman. Mr Buhari, who was inaugurated on 29 May, has held talks with officials from neighbouring countries Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin to set up a regional force to tackle the insurgents. The fight against Boko Haram is also expected to be high on the agenda when President Buhari travels to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama on 20 July. @Rtenews