Boko Haram gunmen killed nine civilians and wounded four others in an overnight raid on Malam Fatori, a border town in Borno State, officials said, underscoring the jihadist group’s renewed campaign in Nigeria’s northeast.
Governor Babagana Zulum’s envoy, Local-Government Commissioner Sugun Mai Mele, visited the community—about 270 km northeast of Maiduguri—and warned residents against helping the militants. “Anyone found collaborating with the insurgents will be cursed,” he told a town-hall meeting, adding that extra troops and local vigilantes would reinforce security.
The assault follows a string of Boko Haram attacks in recent weeks, including a suspected female-suicide bombing in nearby Konduga that killed at least ten people, raising fears the group is regrouping despite military claims of progress. Fighters have ambushed troops, planted roadside explosives and looted villages, prompting talk of a possible return to full-scale insurgency.
Since launching its violent campaign in 2009 to impose extremist Islamic rule and reject Western education, Boko Haram and its offshoots have killed more than 35,000 people and displaced over two million across Nigeria and neighbouring countries, according to U.N. figures. The latest violence adds to a broader security crisis stretching into Nigeria’s north-central and northwest regions, where criminal gangs have killed hundreds in recent months.