Gunmen kill dozens in northeast Nigeria: official, residents

Gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram militants, have killed dozens of people, mostly Christians, in a village in northeast Nigeria, an official and residents said Sunday.

"They killed many many people in the attack late Saturday. From the latest information I have gathered, more than 60 people have been killed," the local government chairman in the area, Maina Ularamu, told AFP.

Ularamu, who spoke to AFP from the Nigerian capital Abuja, said the toll which he gathered from residents of the village of Izghe in troubled Borno state still had to be verified.

The residents had fled the scene of the carnage.

"We suspect that the gunmen were members of Boko Haram. They have taken over the village," he said. "They looted businesses and food stores and loaded all their spoils into vehicles owned by residents and fled into the bush."

The attack made hundreds of villagers homeless, he said, adding that he was about to return to the state capital Maiduguri to face the security and humanitarian challenges created by the raid.

Boko Haram militants early last week killed 43 people in the villages of Konduga and Wajirko, also in Borno state, in attacks that triggered the exodus of hundreds of villagers to Maiduguri.