Boko Haram gunmen stormed a crowded
market in Nigeria's restive northeastern state
of Borno, killing several people and carting
away food, witnesses said Saturday.
Dressed in military and police uniforms,
dozens of insurgents attacked the town of
Mainok, 56 kilometres outside Maiduguri,
the state capital late Thursday, firing a
rocket-propelled grenade and spraying the
market with bullets.
The attackers also looted food which they
loaded onto trucks abandoned by fleeing
traders, witnesses said.
"They struck around 1:30pm (1230GMT)
during peak hours by first firing a rocket-
propelled grenade at the market before
opening fire on traders", Salman Lawan, a
trader who witnessed the carnage told AFP.
"They killed several people in the attack but
it is difficult to give a precise figure," said
Lawan who fled to Maiduguri following the
attack.
Another trader Modu Kachalla, who gave a
similar account, said the insurgents were
looking for cash and food.
"They robbed traders of cash and loaded food
into trucks they seized at the market before
fleeing into the bush," he said.
"The market was full…when the Boko Haram
gunmen attacked which explained the high
casualties," he said.
"The attackers killed many people at the
market but it is difficult to give a toll because
everybody fled to save their lives," said
Ibrahim Kolo, another witness.
Boko Haram, which has seized swathes of
territory in Borno and in neighbouring Yobe
and Adamawa states, has been running short
of food in the areas they have taken,
according to residents.
On Wednesday the insurgents ambushed a
truck carrying grain to Maiduguri outside the
nearby village of Ngamdu and looted it
before setting it on fire, they said.
The news of the attack on the market was
slow to emerge due to disruption in phone
services in the region on Friday. Telecoms
services were only restored on Saturday.
Mainok has suffered repeated attacks by
Boko Haram, which wants to impose a
hardline Islamic state in the mainly Muslim
north.
In February scores were killed there and
many homes destroyed by the extremists.
Their insurgency has claimed more than
10,000 lives since 2009 and left more than
700,000 homeless.
The Nigerian military has come under
increasing pressure as the Islamists have
captured more territory in the volatile
northeast in recent weeks.
.
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