Several killed as military repels fresh Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri

The military on Sunday repelled Boko Haram Islamist militants who attacked from four fronts on the outskirts of Maiduguri, with several civilians killed by aerial bombs, grenades and mortar shells on the ground.

This is the insurgents’ second assault in a week on the city of Maiduguri.

Soldiers said hundreds of insurgents were killed.

“There is heavy gunfire going on. Everybody is panicking and trying to flee the area,” Idris Abubakar, a resident of Polo on the southwestern outskirts of the city, told Reuters.

The insurgents arrived in several armed pick-up trucks and motor-bikes, a security source said.

Terrified residents fled homes shaking from five hours of heavy artillery fire and streamed in from the outskirts of the besieged city.

Babagana Lawan, a resident, said a grenade fell on his house, killing his brother and two factory workers living with him. A hospital source said eight bodies had been brought in from the fighting, according to Reuters.

Troops backed by vigilantes had pushed them out, a spokesman for the vigilante group said.

In a separate attack, a suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber killed himself and 10 others on Sunday near the home of a House of Representatives’ member, Sabo Garbu, in Potiskum, Yobe State. Garbu was unhurt. He is still contesting a legislative seat in the February elections.

Boko Haram second attack in a week on Maiduguri came as Chadian forces launched a winning offensive, acting on an African Union directive for Nigeria’s neighbours to help fight the spreading Islamist uprising.

Chadian forces killed 120 Boko Haram militants in a battle in the north of neighbouring Cameroon that began when the insurgents attacked its troops, the army said in a statement on Saturday. Three of its soldiers were killed.

International outrage has grown over attacks across the border into Cameroon and increasing ferocity that culminated in the slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Baga on January 3.

A Chadian jet fighter supported by ground troops bombed the extremists out of Gamboru and Kolfata on Saturday and from Malumfatori on Thursday, witnesses said.

Chadian troops in Kolfata were “dancing around their country’s flag and chanting,” farmer Awami Kolobe said, quoting refugees who returned across the border from Cameroon. The towns had been under the sway of Boko Haram for months. Gamboru is about 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of Maiduguri, and Baga is another 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Gamboru, on Lake Chad, where Nigeria’s borders converge with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

African leaders at a summit Saturday authorised the creation of a 7,500-strong multinational force to fight Boko Haram.

Boko Haram warned against the coalition and said it will attack Niger, if it sends troops, just as it has attacked Cameroon, according to a message posted Sunday by the SITE intelligence monitoring service.

In Maiduguri, a senior army officer said the militants were “everywhere,” attacking from all four roads leading into the city.

Another officer said hundreds of insurgents, as many as 500, were killed before they took flight Sunday and many weapons were recovered including artillery guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Both officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not supposed to speak to reporters.