In a horrific incident, around 65 people were killed and 10 got injured after suspected Boko Haram militants fired shots at a funeral in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno. The attack took place when mourners had assembled for the funeral on Saturday morning, reported Reuters.
No militant group came forward to take claim responsibility for the attack. But, it is suspected that the attack was carried out by the Boko Haram group as it has often carried out such attacks in the area.
“It is 65 people dead and 10 injured,” said Muhammed Bulama, council chairman of the Nganzai local government area.
Bulama said the assailants killed 21 people returning from the funeral on Saturday and another 44 people when they tried to regroup to defend themselves. He suspected that the attack was in retaliation to an incident when villagers fought off a Boko Haram attack in the area two weeks ago. The villagers killed 11 Boko Haram fighter with the help of local vigilantes and recovered 10 AK-47 rifles in the encounter.
“The villagers resisted the [earlier] attack, killed 11 insurgents and recovered 10 AK-47 rifles in the encounter,” he added. “On Saturday at about 11:40 am, the insurgents came on a reprisal mission, attacking mourners at a graveyard in the area.”
Bunu Bukar, the head of the Borno Hunters Association, said the militants came on three motorbikes and opened fire on a group of men who were returning to Badu Kuluwa from nearby Goni Abachari village, where they had attended funeral prayers for a deceased relative. He added that his colleagues had recovered nearly two dozen bodies.
Last week, Nigerians marked the grim 10-year anniversary of the Boko Haram insurgency, which killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
