Bloody Christmas In Borno As Boko Haram Kills 14, Burns Entire Village

At least 14 people were killed and several others injured by Boko
Haram gunmen in a Christmas Day attack on a village in northeastern
Nigeria, vigilantes said Saturday.

Attacking astride bicycles, the jihadists invaded Kimba village in
flashpoint Borno state around 10:00 pm on Friday, opening fire on
residents and torching their homes.

"The gunmen killed 14 people and burnt the whole village before they
fled," Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian assisting the military in fighting
Boko Haram, told AFP.

"Not a single house was spared in the arson," another vigilante, Musa
Suleiman, said after visiting the razed village.
Hundreds of Kimba residents fled to Biu nearby, where they were put up
in a refugee camp already brimming with people running from Boko
Haram.

The attack comes just days before Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari's self-imposed deadline to stamp out the group expires on
December 31 and in the same week he said that Nigeria has
"technically" defeated the jihadists.

Buhari took office in May vowing to end the six-year insurgency that
has killed over 17,000 people and spooked much-needed investors in
Africa's largest economy and foremost oil producer.

Nigerian troops have won back territory from Boko Haram, but in
response the jihadists have increasingly resorted to suicide bombers —
many of them young children — to wage war for an independent Islamic
state.

The militants have damaged what little infrastructure existed in the
country's underdeveloped north at a time when the government is facing
a cash crunch as a result of the free-falling oil price.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, a report released by the New
York-based Institute for Economics and Peace, it "has become the most
deadly terrorist group in the world".

The UN children's agency said this week that over one million Nigerian
schoolchildren have been kept out of school because of the conflict,
warning that the lack of education will fuel radicalisation in and
around Nigeria.

The jihadists have allied themselves with the Islamic State group, but
experts doubt the scale and scope of the collaboration.
Still, there are growing fears that a once localised hardline Muslim
movement is morphing into a regional jihadist threat as Boko Haram
launches attacks on Nigeria's neighbours Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

-Vanguard