Boko Haram fighters kill more than 40 agricultural workers in Nigeria

Boko Haram fighters kill more than 40 agricultural workers in Nigeria

According to a vigilante group, militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram killed more than 40 agricultural workers in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday. The victims are at least 43, militia leader Babakura Kolo told AFP news agency.

Six people were seriously injured in the attack near the town of Maiduguri. Eight other workers may have been kidnapped.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack. “The whole country has been hurt by these senseless killings,” he said.

According to Kolos, whose militia is fighting Boko Haram, the victims were attacked and handcuffed while working in the rice fields of the village of Koshobe. Then their throats were cut.

Corpses recovered

“We recovered 43 bodies,” Kolo said. The attack was “undoubtedly” carried out by fighters from the Boko Haram militias. Islamists killed a total of 22 agricultural workers in two attacks near Maiduguri in October.

According to another member of the vigilante group, Ibrahim Liman, the peasants had traveled to the northeast from the state of Sokoto, about a thousand kilometers away, to work in the fields. The eight missing persons are believed to have been kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters.

Maiduguri is the capital of the state of Borno. Local elections were held on Saturday for the first time since the Islamist group’s armed uprising began more than ten years ago.

Vote postponed

Due to the ongoing violence, the vote had been postponed over and over again. Boko Haram and the IS Iswap offshoot of West Africa recently attacked more and more carpenters, cattle ranchers and fishermen because they allegedly worked as informants for the army.

Iswap separated from Boko Haram’s militia in 2016, which has been using violence for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The militia attacks and their fighting with the army have killed some 36,000 people in recent years and another two million have fled. (aeg / sda / afp)