Schoolgirls who have escaped from Boko Haram kidnappers in the village of Chibok
Military fighter jets dropped bombs on the insurgents, halting the attacks on Saturday after nine hours, said Enoch Mark, a Christian priest in Chibok, about 11 kilometres from the attacked villages.
“We have picked up 10 corpses with bullet wounds” in the bush outside the villages of Kwaranglum and Tsaha, he said.
The gunmen dressed as soldiers stormed the villages early Saturday, razing them and shooting residents as they tried to flee, Mark said.
Smoke from the direction of the two villages could be seen from Chibok, said Mark, whose daughter and niece were among the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok on April 14.
The schoolgirls’ abduction from their dormitory triggered global condemnation.
The gunmen, aboard all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, arrived in Kwaranglum around 8am, firing indiscriminately and torching homes, according to resident Daniel Haruna, who fled to Chibok.
The attacks were in apparent reprisals for the killing of eight Boko Haram fighters by a local vigilante in Kwaranglum on Tuesday, Haruna said. – AFP