5th June, 2014
Suspected Boko Haram militants Thursday 5 June in a fresh raid on a town in the restive northeast of Nigeria, fired on soldiers and burnt down a church, a local government official said.
“There was an attack on Madagali town this morning by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents,” Maina Ularamu, chairman of the Madagali local government in Adamawa state, told AFP.
Nigeria’s government declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in May last year in a bid to clamp down on Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody insurgency.
Adamawa shares a northern border with Borno, where on Tuesday militant fighters went on a bloody rampage.
Madagali is about 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) from the town of Gwoza in Borno. Tuesday’s attacks, in which hundreds were feared killed, targeted villages in the Gwoza local government district.
Ularamu said the Madagali attack happened at about 6:00 am (0500 GMT) when gunmen dressed in military uniform arrived in 10 all-terrain vehicles and on motorbikes, overrunning a nearby military checkpoint.
“Due to their huge number and sophisticated guns, they overpowered the soldiers, who withdrew from the checkpoint,” he added.
“The gunmen then attacked and burnt a Roman Catholic church and the local government secretariat opposite it,” he added.
Ularamu said he had not been told of any casualties, although one resident said that two civilians had been killed in the cross-fire.
The attackers drove off into the bush after the attack, the official added.