Rebels kill 29 more in Nigerian village

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a market in northeastern Nigeria, killing 29 people. The deaths occurred Saturday in northeast Ngurosoye village in the Bama region, said Senator Ahmed Zanna, who represents the area.
The insurgents came in hundreds on motorcycles and six pick-up vans and shot indiscriminately. They also shot a rocket-propelled grenade at the market, which killed some traders.
A security source, who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity, said 29 lifeless bodies were counted moments after the attack, which also caused injuries to several other people.
He said, “The attacks by the insurgents on the state, rather than decreasing, is seriously increasing and the killings these days are in greater number. I think it is time the government allowed us to cordon this Sambisa and destroy all these evil people.”
It was the third time insurgents would attack the market since 2009.
Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck has faced criticism at home and abroad for failing to react quickly to Boko Haram’s April 14 abduction, the same day the sect mounted the worst ever bomb attack in the capital, Abuja, when a car bomb killed at least 75 people. There have been almost daily protests in Nigerian cities demanding that Jonathan’s government act to rescue the students.
The insurgents were said to have carried out repeated attacks on the village since the youths in the area took up arms against them by joining the vigilance group, codenamed Civilian Joint Task Force, in the hunt for Boko Haram members.
A resident of Bama town, who spoke anonymously with journalists, said the people had heard rumors of possible attacks on the area by the insurgents about two weeks ago.
Attempts made to get the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Lawal Tanko, and the spokesman of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Col. Muhammad Dole, yielded no results as of the time of filing this report.
The United States and Britain have sent teams to Nigeria to help the government find more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militants more than a month ago from the northeastern town of Chibok. US is conducting manned surveillance flights and using a drone to help the search, which is taking place as suspected Boko Haram militants a day earlier killed a soldier and kidnapped 10 workers from China attack on a camp run by a Chinese engineering company in Cameroon.