Suspected Islamists Kill 7 in Northern Nigeria
Suspected Islamists have killed seven people in a market in northern Nigeria's restive city of Maiduguri in the latest deadly attacks in the region, police said Thursday.
"There was an attack yesterday afternoon at Monday market. Some gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram stormed the market around 1330 hours disguised as customers," Borno state police commissioner Bala Hassan told Agence France Presse.
"They opened fire on some shops selling insecticides and mosquito nets, killing seven traders," he said, adding that no arrests had been made.
"The shooting caused confusion in the market, which gave the attackers the chance to escape unnoticed before the arrival of security personnel," he said.
Hassan did not disclose the identities of the victims, but traders in the market said five of them were Igbo traders from southeast Nigeria.
Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of shootings and bomb blasts, mostly in northern Nigeria, which have killed more than 1,000 people since 2009.
It claimed responsibility for an August suicide attack at the U.N. headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed 25 people and for coordinated bombings and shootings in the northern city of Kano on January 20 which left 185 people dead -- its deadliest operation.
The sect had initially claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria but its aims and structure have since become less clear.
A bid to hold indirect talks between the government and the Islamist group to end the violence earlier in March appears to have collapsed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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