Abuja - Saba:
Twenty-eight people were killed in two separate attacks carried out by militants in northern Nigeria, according to Nigerian military sources.
Colonel Olaniu Osoba, spokesman for the multinational military coalition, explained on Friday that an armed group attacked a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the town of Malam Fatori, on the border with Niger, killing at least 11 people before Nigerian forces were able to regain control of the area.
The militants used pickup trucks mounted with machine guns in their attack and stormed a camp housing thousands of displaced people in the town, before setting fire to the local hospital and several government buildings.
In a separate incident in Sokoto State, northwest Nigeria, an armed group attacked the village of Kwalajia as residents were preparing for afternoon prayers, killing 17 people, most of them farmers. Northern Nigeria has been experiencing security instability for more than a decade, due to the escalation of armed groups operating in forests and remote areas.
Nigerian authorities are intensifying military campaigns in these areas to contain threats that have resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people and the displacement of approximately two million since 2009, according to United Nations estimates.
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