Gunmen suspected to be members of the violent Islamic sect Boko Haram have killed six persons, including two Nigerian Air Force officers, in Nigeria’s northern Borno state since Monday, the private Nation newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting police and military spokespersons.
In the Ngomari area of the state capital, Maiduguri, gunmen killed two brothers in their home on Monday, after making some demands which the brothers could not meet. No more details of the killing were known.
After killing the brothers, the escaping gunmen sighted the Air Force officer who was returning home from the nearby Maiduguri Air Force Base, and shot him dead.
The second Air Force officer was kiled in Polo, 150 kilometres from Maiduguri, when some gunmen invaded his neighborhood, while two more civilians were killed in shootings at the popular Monday Market in the city as well as at the border town of Gamboru, Ngala Local Government Area.
The paper quoted the Fields Operations Officer of the military Joint Task Force, Col. Victor Ebhaleme, and the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Simeon Midenda, as confirming the killings in separate phone calls to them.
Borno is considered the spiritual base of the Boko Haram sect, which has killed 935 people in 164 attacks since July 2009, according to figures provided by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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