Reports in Nigeria say as many as 60 people may have been killed after a raid on a village in the northeast by suspected Boko Haram militants.
The attack on Kukuwa in Yobe State happened last Thursday but details have only just emerged from survivors. Some of the villagers are said to have drowned while fleeing gunmen, BBC reported.
The fact that it took five days for any news to come out shows how dire the security situation is in parts of Yobe State, as eyewitnesses said dozens of militants arrived in the village on motorcycles and began shooting the residents.
“We were getting ready to observe evening prayers; all of a sudden we started hearing sounds of gunshots,” one man told BBC.
“We all ran for our dear life into the bush. The following morning we returned home and discovered corpses of 60 children. They all drowned in the river in their effort to escape the attack.”
Last month, Boko Haram killed 10 people there after some of its own fighters had been killed by a vigilante force in the village.
The southern part of Yobe has witnessed some of the most shocking attacks launched by Boko Haram extremists in recent years.
In February last year, militants targeted a boarding school in Buni Yadi killing 59 boys in their dormitories. In 2013, dozens of students were killed at an agricultural college in the same area.
Security situation has relatively improved in Nigeria in the past few months. However close to 1,000 people have been killed by Boko Haram since President Muhammadu Buhari took over in May.
