MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, April 14 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamists
attacked the northeast Nigerian border town of Damasak, killing
at least eight people and causing hundreds to flee to
neighbouring Niger, local officials and a resident said on
Wednesday.
No group claimed responsibility but militant Islamist group
Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province,
carry out attacks in the northeast.
Some 2 million people have fled their homes and 30,000 have
been killed since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009
aimed at creating an Islamic state in the region.
Nigeria, which has Africa's biggest economy, faces a raft of
security challenges. Authorities are grappling with the
insurgency, a spate of school kidnappings in the northwest and
piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
The insurgents attacked Damasak, a few kilometres from the
border with Niger, at around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, three soldiers
speaking on condition of anonymity said.
"Ten residents were killed in attacks on Tuesday. Our people
have fled to villages in Niger while some are trapped in the
bush," local government official Bukar Mustapha told Reuters on
Wednesday. "Boko Haram men are still at Damasak," he said.
Resident Mustapha Gashigar said eight people had been buried
but other bodies had not been recovered, and 17 were seriously
injured. He said hundreds of people had fled Damasak.
Two local government officials, who did not want to be
named, said the insurgents shot sporadically with anti-aircraft
guns mounted on vehicles.
A military spokesman did not immediately respond to phone
calls seeking comment. A Borno state government spokesman did
not respond to text messages and phone calls seeking comment.
Damasak was captured by Boko Haram in late 2014 but freed by
troops from Nigeria and neighbouring states early the following
year.
Boko Haram attained global notoriety for the kidnap of 270
girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014.
Around 100 of the schoolgirls have never been found.
Wednesday marked the seventh anniversary of the mass
abduction. Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum said in a
statement he had not lost hope that those who were sill missing
would return safely.