Twenty-four people were killed when Boko Haram fighters opened fire on mourners, a local community leader said on Friday, in the second attack in northeast Nigeria this week after a relative lull.
The attack happened at about 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) in Kuda village near the town of Gulak, in Adamawa state, according to Maina Ularamu, a former local government chairman in nearby Madagali.
Adamawa police spokesperson Othman Abubakar, based in the state capital Yola, 255 kilometres (160 miles) away, confirmed the attack. But he gave a lower death toll of 18 and said “many others were injured”.
Ularamu said the attack occurred during a “mourning celebration” to mark the death of a local community leader.
“They came on motorcycles and opened fire on the crowd, killing 24. Most of the victims were women. They looted food supplies and burnt homes and they left almost an hour later,” he told AFP.
“Gulak has been liberated from Boko Haram but the gunmen still live in villages nearby. They attack mostly to loot food supplies.
“Our people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram attacks have been returning because they can’t live in the camps. But now they are facing threats from Boko Haram who launch nocturnal attacks.”
Boko Haram threatened to overrun Adamawa state in 2014, sweeping down from their Sambisa Forest stronghold which lies just across the border in Borno state to Mubi, 80 kilometres south of Gulak.