Militants attacked a police station in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing four officers as violence escalated in the country’s troubled Borno state.
Police said militants linked to Boko Haram and ISWAP tried to overrun Nganzai town, located less than 100 kilometres north of the state capital Maiduguri.
Officers engaged the attackers in a gun battle but four police personnel were killed during the assault, according to an official police statement.
In a separate attack, militants targeted a security post at a camp hosting internally displaced persons near Damasak, close to the Niger border.
Attackers killed a local security volunteer and burned about twenty thatched houses, forcing residents to flee the camp area.
Police said security forces and civilian volunteers responded quickly and repelled the attackers in both incidents.
Militant groups Boko Haram and ISWAP have intensified attacks on military, police and civilian targets as Nigeria faces a prolonged insurgency in the northeast.
Borno state remains the epicentre of the conflict that began with Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising and has displaced millions across the region.