Boko Haram kills 14, injures nine in Borno

Nigerian Islamists on Monday attacked
Bama, a town in Borno State killing 14 pro-
government youth vigilantes and injuring
nine others, a local official who attended a
mass funeral for the victims has said.
Reuters reported that Sunday's attack was
one of the spates of deadly assaults by the
Boko Haram Islamist sect this month that
raises doubts about whether a military
offensive against it since May can succeed.
Local vigilante groups run by youth
volunteers have been instrumental in
helping the military capture Boko Haram
members, but they have also made them a
target for the insurgents, drawing civilians
further into the conflict.
The Chairman, Bama Local Government Area
of Borno State, Alhaji Baba Shehu Gulumba,
told journalists in Bama, near Maiduguri, the
Borno State capital that the insurgents
disguised as soldiers and lured the youths
into a trap.
"They were on guard duty when the sect
members dressed in military camouflage
came and told them that they were needed
at a meeting nearby.
"When they had been lured away from their
duty posts they were then attacked and
killed," he said.
When our correspondent contacted the
Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen.
Chris Olukolade, he said that he was not
aware of the attacks.
He said that he had not received any
briefing on an attack by Boko Haram in
Borno on Monday.
He said, "I have not seen any such attack
and killings in my records; I am not aware of
it."
Bama is in Borno State, the center of the
insurgency. The town is not far from a
mountainous area along the Cameroon
border where many Boko Haram fighters
are believed to be holding out, after being
cleared from other areas by Nigerian forces.
Their four-year battle to revive an ancient
Islamic caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria
remains the main security threat to Africa's
top oil producer.
The military announced a week ago that
Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau may
have died between late July and early August
from bullet wounds he received during a
gun battle weeks before.
If he did die, not only has it failed to stem
the violence, but deadly attacks are actually
up on a month ago.