Boko Haram kills 8 in Nigeria attacks

Fighters stormed the village of Balumri

Boko Haram militants murdered eight people and abducted two others in attacks on farmers and a village in northeast Nigeria, residents and local militia members said Saturday.

Fighters on Friday evening stormed the village of Balumri, 15 kilometres from the state capital Maiduguri, cutting the throats of four male residents and abducting two others, inhabitants said.

Militants on Saturday then beheaded four farmers after attacking them as they worked on their crops in the Gidan Waya suburb of the city, members of an anti-Boko Haram militia said.

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The decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed around 35,000 people, displaced some two million, and spilt over into neighbouring countries.

Boko Haram has been notorious for carrying out brutal attacks on civilians, abducting people, and unleashing suicide bombers on bus stations, mosques and schools.

Balumri resident Bura Abdiye said the fighters arrived at his village on foot late Friday evening to carry out the attack.

"They slit the throats of four people and took away two others," he said, adding that the militants also looted food.

In a separate assault on Saturday, Maiduguri militia leader Babakura Kolo told AFP "insurgents seized four famers while working on the farms and decapitated them".

"The bodies were found with the severed heads lying beside them and brought to the city this afternoon," he said.

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Boko Haram is known to target farmers, loggers and herders, accusing them of passing information to soldiers and vigilantes fighting against them.

The area around Maiduguri has been repeatedly attacked by militants- despite claims from the Nigerian army that it has crushed the group.

In an earlier incident on Thursday, fighters also shot dead two Balumri residents as they worked on their farms outside the village, local residents said.

While Boko Haram tends to hit softer targets, a splinter faction has ratcheted up attacks against the military since last year.