Three soldiers and ten farmers were killed on Saturday in separate attacks carried out by suspected militants believed to be affiliated with the Boko Haram group in northeastern Nigeria, local militias reported to Agence France-Presse on Sunday.
Officials told AFP that extremist fighters attacked a military base not far from the city of Konduga in the Borno state on Saturday morning, leading to a clash with the soldiers.
Ibrahim Liman, a militia commander, explained that “Boko Haram terrorists exploited the darkness and cornfields to launch their attack.”
“The soldiers engaged in fierce combat, killing three soldiers before eliminating the attackers and forcing them to withdraw.”
On the same Saturday afternoon, Boko Haram militants shot and killed ten farmers after rounding them up while they were working in their fields in a village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno province.
Regarding the second attack, Liman stated that four more farmers are still missing, confirming the death toll.
Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa increasingly target loggers, herders, farmers, and fishermen in northeastern Nigeria, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and militias.
This ongoing conflict for the past fourteen years has led to a severe humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria, as well as in southern Niger, western Chad, and northern Cameroon, where the insurgency has spread.
In July 2015, the four countries established a multinational joint task force consisting of 8,500 troops to combat the terrorists.
However, these regional efforts against extremists might face challenges due to the recent coup in Niger and the threat of military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to overthrow the military council.
