Nigeria - 55 Killed As Boko Haram Attack Police Station In Borno, 105 Inmates Freed
http://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/05/nigeria-55-killed-as-boko-haram-attack.html
Gunmen in northeastern Nigeria have raided a police station, leaving at least 55 people dead.
A spokesman for the country's military said the Islamist sect Boko Haram is suspected of being behind the attack.
Military spokesman Sagir Musa told news agency Reuters 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians were killed on Tuesday when heavily armed gunmen stormed the police station in the northeastern town of Bama in Borno State.
Musa said 13 of the groups own members also died in the attack.
No group has formally claimed responsibility for the incident, although Borno State is a stronghold of the Islamist group Boko Haram.
Local reporters who visited Bama after the attacks said the slain gunmen wore military uniforms for the attacks.
Tuesday's attacks came after 17 people were killed and many houses burnt following a series of attacks by the extremist group in the town on April 25.
Violence linked to Boko Haram's insurgency has left some 3,600 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
But an attack mid-April in the remote fishing town of Baga near Lake Chad was "unprecedented" according to Human Rights Watch, leaving some 200 people dead and thousands of houses razed.
The Nigerian Red Cross has said that 187 people were killed in the fighting, while an area senator put the death toll at 228.
Before the Baga carnage, the group's deadliest attack yet occurred in Kano in January 2012, when coordinated bombings and shootings killed at least 185 people.
Boko Haram has said its deadly spate of attacks is aimed at creating an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim while the southern half of the country, Africa's most populous and top oil producer, is mostly Christian.
Military spokesman Sagir Musa told news agency Reuters 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians were killed on Tuesday when heavily armed gunmen stormed the police station in the northeastern town of Bama in Borno State.
Musa said 13 of the groups own members also died in the attack.
No group has formally claimed responsibility for the incident, although Borno State is a stronghold of the Islamist group Boko Haram.
Local reporters who visited Bama after the attacks said the slain gunmen wore military uniforms for the attacks.
Tuesday's attacks came after 17 people were killed and many houses burnt following a series of attacks by the extremist group in the town on April 25.
Violence linked to Boko Haram's insurgency has left some 3,600 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
But an attack mid-April in the remote fishing town of Baga near Lake Chad was "unprecedented" according to Human Rights Watch, leaving some 200 people dead and thousands of houses razed.
The Nigerian Red Cross has said that 187 people were killed in the fighting, while an area senator put the death toll at 228.
Before the Baga carnage, the group's deadliest attack yet occurred in Kano in January 2012, when coordinated bombings and shootings killed at least 185 people.
Boko Haram has said its deadly spate of attacks is aimed at creating an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, which is predominantly Muslim while the southern half of the country, Africa's most populous and top oil producer, is mostly Christian.
