Ten killed as gunmen open fire in Adamawa church, market

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A group of gunmen Sunday stormed a village in Adamawa on the border with Cameroon killing 10 residents in attacks on a church and a market, police said.

The gunmen opened fire on a market square in Njilang village in Adamawa state, killing six people before storming a local church in the same village where they killed four worshippers, Mohammed Ibrahim, the state police spokesman, told AFP.

“Unknown gunmen went into the village this morning and attacked a market square where they killed six people and then proceeded to a church where they shot dead four others,” Ibrahim said.
Nine people were wounded in the attacks in the small farming village, 230 kilometres (145 miles) from the state capital Yola, Ibrahim said.

He said the gunmen crossed the border into Cameroon after the attacks before the arrival of policemen from the nearest police post 30 kilometres (20 miles) away.

He did not say if the gunmen were resident in Cameroon.

Ibrahim also declined to say whether he thought Boko Haram Islamists who have carried out a series of bomb and gun attacks in the area were responsible, although criminal gangs have carried out similar attacks under the cover of the Islamist group.

In December last year, the Islamists launched coordinated bomb and gun attacks on a police station and government buildings in the area, killing several people, including policemen, and freeing suspects in custody.

Global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch said last week the insurgency in north and central Nigeria by Boko Haram has claimed 3,600 lives since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

AFP