B'Haram kills 24 members of civilian JTF

Suspected members of Boko Haram,
ambushed and killed at least 24 members of
a youth vigilante group who were on a
mission to find and fight the sect in
northeast Nigeria, a security official told
Associated Press on Saturday.
Those who returned from Friday's attack
told officials that 36 other vigilantes were
missing, the official said on condition of
anonymity because he is not permitted to
speak to the media.
"The vigilante youths numbering over 100
were on a mission to capture some Boko
Haram terrorists in their camps around
Kaleri, Shuwari, Maganari and Nannari
villages around Monguno's local government
area, before they were ambushed by the
terrorists," he said.
The attack took place somewhere near
Monguno town, 160 kilometers (100 miles)
from the city of Maiduguri, the Borno state
capital where the Boko Haram ideology
sprang up some four years ago.
The vigilante group, known as the Civilian
Joint Task Force, said its attackers were
wearing military uniforms. The official said
the Civilian-JTF usually gets a military escort
when it goes on a search mission but that
when the military did not arrive on time the
vigilantes headed out.
They later told officials they saw three patrol
vehicles painted in camouflage and
approached them thinking they were the
escorts. The sect members then opened fire,
killing at least 24 Civilian-JTF members, the
security operative said.
The Civilian-JTF has recently become a target
for Boko Haram, an armed Islamic group
that has been waging a bloody war in
Africa's most populous nation. Two attacks
– one earlier in the week and the other last
weekend – killed at least 20 members of the
vigilante group, residents and an official
said.
"We are getting too many attacks and our
members' deaths are on the rise. I am
scared, and so are some of my friends in the
vigilantes," said Shehu Ibrahim, a member of
Civilian-JTF. "We may back out if we are not
protected."
The state's foremost monarch, the Shehu of
Borno, Abubakar Garbai Alamin El-Kanemi,
had requested financial and material
support for the Civilian-JTF while attending a
government meeting in the troubled city of
Maiduguri.