Boko Haram has killed nine farmers and abducted 12 others in Mammanti, Borno State, the cradle of the terrorists, locals told the AFP, yesterday.
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On Monday, the terrorists stormed fields outside Mammanti village and opened fire on farmers as they worked, killing nine and injuring three others.
“We recovered nine dead bodies after the attack.
“The insurgents took away 12 people, including women, and macheted three people who resisted being abducted,” the village chief, Muhammad Mammanti said.
The jihadists came on bicycles in the afternoon, said Usman Kaka, a farmer who escaped.
“They just opened fire on us and continued to fire as we fled.
“We later returned to find nine people had been killed and three left with machete cuts on their heads for refusing to go with the gunmen,” Kaka said.
Last Wednesday, Boko Haram jihadists attacked Mammanti, and killed one person and burned the entire village before stealing hundreds of cattle.
The attack on Mammanti forced residents to move to the state capital, Maiduguri, from where they commuted, daily, to work on the fields.
Boko Haram has stepped up attacks on farmers and loggers in recent years, accusing them of passing information to the military.
Despite the Federal Government’s insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, the group has recently carried out major attacks on military and civilian targets, killing scores.
More than 27, 000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in the remote North East in 2009 and 1.8 million are still homeless.