Boko Haram gunmen kill 20 in shooting rampage

The Nigerian army, enforcing a state of emergency in Borno state, has reported the death of 20 civilians in Dawashe Village, as suspected members of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram went on a shooting rampage.

The army said the Boko Haram gunmen were retaliating an attack on them by a vigilante group.

“The suspected sect members came armed and fired sporadic shots that killed over twenty innocent civilians,” Haruna Mohammed Sani, spokesman for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) said in statement issued today.

Suspected Boko Haram members subsequently opened fire in the village, the spokesman said, adding that the 20 victims were mostly fishermen and traders.

Sani said a dozen other civilians sustained gunshot wounds during the incident but provided no information on casualties among the belligerents.

The toll and circumstances of the incident could not immediately be verified independently.

The MNJTF, a joint military force set up in 1998 to combat border crimes, consists of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

Its mandate was recently expanded to fight Boko Haram, whose insurgency is estimated to have cost 3,600 lives since 2009, including killings by security forces.