Boko Haram Hacks 10 Civilians to Death With Machetes in Northeast Nigeria

Boko Haram militants are reported to have hacked 10 civilians to death in a raid on a village in northeastern Nigeria, AFP reported, citing a local official.

Maina Ularamu, the chairman of the government of Madagali district in the Adamawa state, told reporters Monday that Boko Haram insurgents armed with machetes stormed the village of Pambula-Kwamda shortly before dawn and killed ten local residents, who were still asleep.

Ularamu stated that survivors had noted that the attackers had few weapons, some carrying no arms at all. He noted that authorities believe that the attackers were "the same people raiding villages in the area recently and hiding in nearby bushes and mountains." He noted that local authorities are now "mobilizing local hunters and vigilantes to go into the bushes and mountains hunt to them down."

The Nigerian military had only recently declared the area free from the militant group, which had taken over Madagali last August, causing thousands of local residents to flee the area. The military had reclaimed Madagali in a counteroffensive in March, the military assuring them that the insurgency had been eliminated from the area.

A number of villages in the district have faced attacks in recent weeks as government troops attempt to flush the rebels from the nearby Sambisa Forest in Borno state. Soldiers have rescued hundreds of women and children kidnapped by Boko Haram from the forest.

Boko Haram extremists began large-scale attacks in Nigeria in 2009, intending to impose traditional Islamic rule in the area. The group presently operates on the border of four Western African countries — Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.