Boko Haram Islamists killed a civilian and torched his house during a raid on a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Yobe, a police spokesman said on Monday. Travelling in all-terrain vans, they raided Babban Gida village around 01:00 am (GMT) Sunday and fought a gunbattle with soldiers. The insurgents stole two police vehicles but were eventually driven out, Toyin Gbadegesin, Yobe state police spokesman told AFP.
“The terrorists initially shot dead a man and burnt his thatched hut on the outskirts of the village,” Gbadegesin said. “They attacked the police station where troops engaged them in a fight which forced them to retreat”. Babban Gida, which lies 50 kilometres from the state capital Damaturu, has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram extremists, whose six-year insurgency has claimed over 17,000 lives and displaced 2.6 million from their homes.
The Nigerian government claims Boko Haram had been “technically” defeated but despite a sustained military offensive the Islamist group still carries out sporadic raids on towns and villages in the northeast. The military operations have reclaimed swathes of territory seized by the insurgents in their quest to establish an Islamic caliphate, pushing Boko Haram out of its Sambisa forest stronghold to remote islets on Lake Chad straddling Nigeria and its three neighbours – Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Security analysts believe sporadic Boko Haram raids were mainly for food and petrol following disruptions of their supply routes by the military campaign.
