Nigeria’s Boko Haram crisis: Maiduguri ‘preachers kill dozens’

Suspected Boko Haram militants have launched an attack in a village near the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing about 45 people.

Survivors told the BBC the attackers said they had come to preach to the crowd, before opening fire on them.

Meanwhile, residents and officials say at least 200 people were killed in a wave of attacks earlier this week.

Maiduguri and surrounding areas have not suffered many attacks since a state of emergency was imposed a year ago.

Remote areas are now usually targeted instead.

Nigeria’s government has been facing growing pressure both at home and abroad to do more to tackle the group since militants kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April.

Boko Haram has waged an increasingly bloody insurgency since 2009 in an attempt to create an Islamic state in Nigeria – and thousands of people have died in their attacks and the subsequent security crackdown.

Villagers ‘tricked’

The militants came into the village of Barderi, near the University of Maiduguri on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday night, telling people to gather to hear them preach, but then turned the guns on the crowd.

The insurgents have used various tricks to gather residents together when they enter a village before attacking them.

BBC News 

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