Boko Haram murder 24 at village funeral – mostly women

Kuda in northern Nigeria was the scene of the atrocity, which also involved looting food supplies and burning homes

Boko Haram militants have killed 24 people, mostly women, as they mourned at a funeral in a village in northern Nigeria, looting and burning their houses down.

Suspected Boko Haram militants also attacked a village in Niger while a delegation of ministers was visiting, killing seven police officers and wounding 12 in a gun battle.

Some women were still missing after Thursday’s attack on the village of Kuda in Nigeria’s Adamawa state, according to a resident, Moses Kwagh. Maina Ularamu, a local community leader, said the attack occurred during the “mourning celebration” for a local leader.

“They came on motorcycles and opened fire on the crowd, killing 24,” he said. “Most of the victims were women. They looted food supplies and burnt homes and they left almost an hour later.”

A police spokesman, Othman Abubakar, put the death toll at 18, adding that many more were injured. “Our people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram attacks have been returning because they can’t live in the camps. But now they are facing threats from Boko Haram who launch nocturnal attacks,” he said.

Ularamu said that although Boko Haram had been chased out of the nearby town of Gulak, militants still lived in the villages surrounding it.

Boko Haram threatened to overrun Adamawa state in 2014, sweeping down from their stronghold in Sambisa forest, which lies just across the border in Borno state. That attack, which destroyed bridges and homes on the only road south to Yola, forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes into camps and host communities in the state capital.