Boko Haram gunmen attacked a Nigerian military base and adjacent police barracks simultaneously in the north-eastern town of Buni Yadi, killing at least 31 security personnel, security sources and witnesses said. The attack late on Monday in Yobe state occurred not far from where the Islamist insurgents shot or burned to death 59 pupils at a boarding school in February.
The militants, whose violent struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and made them the biggest threat to security in Africa's top oil-producing state, are still holding more than 200 girls kidnapped on April 14, an act which provoked a storm of international outrage.
A witness and resident of Buni Yadi, who identified himself only as Mustafa for fear of retribution, said the militants arrived in an armoured personnel carrier and six Toyota Hilux pickup trucks before dismounting and firing into the air. They fired rocket propelled grenades at both bases. A senior security source in Yobe state said 17 soldiers were confirmed killed and 14 police officers, including a female police officer, also died.
The spokesman for defence headquarters was not immediately available for comment, but a military source at the headquarters of the north-east operation in Maiduguri confirmed the attack. Yobe police spokesman Nansak Chegwam said he knew of it but that the details were sketchy.
In what has become rare for a movement that has killed thousands of civilians in the past year, Boko Harm called out to people on the street not to run away as they had only come for the security forces, Mustafa and the Yobe police source said. The insurgents also razed the police barracks, the army base, the high court and residence of district head Abba Hassan. From being a clerical movement opposed to Western culture - Boko Haram means "Western education is a sin" in the northern Hausa language - the sect has emerged as well armed, fully fledged armed insurrection.
A military offensive launched a year ago to try to flush Boko Haram out, which initially seemed to be working, appears to have left them stronger than ever. The insurgents occupy a vast, hilly terrain along the Cameroon border, from where they have repeatedly launched devastating hit and run strikes.
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