Nigeria: 12 civilians reported killed in volatile town

By Olarewaju Kola

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Roughly a dozen civilians have been killed by Boko Haram terrorists during an attack on a volatile town in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, according to locals.

The terrorists invaded Kukawa, a restive town on the Nigerian border with Chad and Niger at about 4 pm local time (1500GMT) on Tuesday, shooting sporadically, community leader Mustapha Lawan told Anadolu Agency in Maiduguri, Borno’s provincial capital.

The incident was not immediately known until Wednesday afternoon due to the breakdown of telecommunication facilities in the area.

The town is located on the Lake Chad shore and processes fish to send it to various parts of the country and neighboring African nations for sale.

Ahmad Sajo, a member of a state-backed irregular security force, said some military personnel were abducted by the terrorists.

No one has claimed responsibility for the incident, but the town was attacked and captured by Boko Haram in 2014, liberated by the military in 2016, and attacked again in December 2018.

The military has not also responded to the incident.

The attack came barely two weeks after the convoy of Borno’s governor, Babagana Zulum, was ambushed in the area by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

Over 50,000 civilians and security personnel have been killed and about 3 million people displaced in over a decade of Boko Haram terror attacks in the country's northeast.