KANO: Boko Haram militants killed at least seven people in a Christmas Eve assault on a village in Nigeria’s restive northeast, local sources told AFP Friday.
Security agencies had in recent days warned of an increased risk of attack during the Christian holiday.
Fighters in trucks and motorcycles stormed Pemi, a predominantly Christian village in Borno state Thursday, shooting “indiscriminately” and setting buildings on fire, said Abwaku Kabu, a militia leader.
In many parts of Nigeria, communities have resorted for self-defence to armed vigilantes or militias, who work alongside the army.
“The terrorists killed seven people, burnt 10 homes and looted food supplies that were meant to be distributed to residents to celebrate Christmas,” Kabu said.
A body was found Friday morning, local community leader Ayuba Alamson said, raising the number of dead to seven.
The toll could rise as villagers fled into the bush during the attack and some people are still unaccounted for.
The assailants, who drove from the group’s nearby Sambisa forest enclave, looted medical supplies from a hospital before setting it ablaze, the militia leader said, adding they also burnt a church and abducted a priest.
The village is located only 20km from Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls six years ago.
Separately Thursday, gunmen attacked another Christian community in Garkida, in neighbouring Adamawa state, looting drug stores and food supplies before torching homes, residents told AFP.
There were no reports of casualties from that attack.
Nigeria’s security agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), issued a warning Tuesday about planned attacks.
The DSS asked Nigerians “to be extra vigilant and report strange movements”, while assuring that it was “collaborating with other sister agencies to ensure that adequate measures are put in place for protection of lives and property”.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement Thursday “reiterated the promise of his administration to remain unyielding in confronting the Boko Haram insurgency as well as other forms of criminality”.
“For me, providing security for all residents in the country remains an article of faith,” Buhari said in a written Christmas message.
The 78-year-old urged citizens to volunteer “intelligence or information on activities of armed bandits, insurgents and other criminal elements within their communities in order to put an end to this blight”.
The decade-long conflict in Nigeria’s northeast has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes, according to the United Nations.
Violence has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting regional countries to form a military coalition to fight the militant groups.