14 dead as Boko Haram burns down village in Xmas day attack

In from Ahmed Boulor . . .

Flashpoint Borno State has continued to be a target for jihadists who have increasingly resorted to suicide bombers – many of them young children – to wage war for an independent Islamic state.

The latest round of attacks occurred in the sleepy village of Kimba when assailants mounted on bikes opened fire on residents in the largely underdeveloped north-eastern hamlet.

The shooting left at least 14 people dead and many others injured from gun wounds in the attack which took place on Christmas Day.

Read also: Boko Haram: 9 killed in Borno by child suicide bomber

According to eyewitnesses, the jihadists invaded the village at about 10pm on Friday shooting sporadically and torching homes.

“The gunmen killed 14 people and burnt the whole village before they fled,” Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram, told newsmen.
“Not a single house was spared in the arson,” another vigilante, Musa Suleiman, said after visiting the razed village.

The attack saw hundreds of Kimba residents flee to nearby Biu, where they were put up in a refugee camp already brimming with people running from Boko Haram.

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