Armed groups killed at least 40 farmers in Nigeria’s Borno state. boko haram news

Officials say Boko Haram and ISWAP groups are suspected to be behind the attacks on farmers in the Dumba area.

At least 40 farmers have been killed in attacks by armed groups in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, according to government officials.

Borno state Governor Babagana Umrah Zulum and state Information Commissioner Usman Tarr said on Monday that fighters from the Boko Haram group and affiliate ISIL (ISIS) in West Africa Province (ISWAP) were suspected of carrying out the attack.

Tar said the groups surrounded dozens of farmers and shot them dead in Doumba, on the shores of Lake Chad, late Sunday night.

“Initial reports indicate that around 40 farmers have been killed, while the whereabouts of several farmers who survived the attack are being traced to reunite them with their families,” Tar said.

Tarr said the state government has ordered troops battling rebel fighters in the area to “track and destroy rebel elements” operating around their enclaves in Doumba and the wider Lake Chad region.

The farmers violated safe limits set by the armed forces for farming and fishing in the area, which is a sanctuary for ISWAP and Boko Haram fighters and is full of landmines and “vulnerable to attacks at night,” the commissioner said. “Danger”.

Governor Zulum warned civilians to remain within designated safe areas, which the military has cleared of both fighter planes and munitions.

He also demanded an investigation into the attack by the armed forces.

Lake Chad, which spans Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, serves as a base for Boko Haram and ISWAP, who use it as a base to launch attacks.

Boko Haram took up arms in 2009 to fight Western indoctrination and impose its own version of Islamic law.

According to the United Nations, about 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than two million people have been displaced in the northeastern region.