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Updated April 27th, 2021 at 07:48 IST

Nigeria: Nine fatally shot by gunmen in Anambra; Mainok army base attacked

Police launched a probe into the attack, and Nigeria Police officers were deployed in the area to apprehend the heavily-armed extremists who were absconding.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Nigeria
(Image Credit: AP)  | Image:self
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At least nine persons were fatally shot at by gunmen who invaded a village in Nigeria's southeastern state of Anambra on Monday, the police said, according to an ANI report. While the casualties are yet to be identified, police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga from the village of Ukpomachi of the Oyi local government area of the state told media reporters that numerous civilians were wounded in the attack and there was the loss of life and property. Speaking at the state capital, Awka, Ikenga said that the police has launched a probe into the attack, and officers were deployed in the area to apprehend the absconding attackers who were armed with ‘dangerous’ weaponry. 

Amid the rising insecurity across Nigeria, a separate attack on an army base in northeastern Nigeria rocked the region as more than 30 soldiers were killed by militant groups. The attackers were identified as the regional offshoot of the Islamic State. The attack was carried on the military base situated in the Mainok town in the northeast Borno state of Nigeria, according to reports. The perpetrators had camouflaged identity as they arrived on 16 gun trucks and six mine-resistant military vehicles, officials told reporters on the ground. Earlier last week, the rebel Islamic extremists attacked the offices of several international aid groups, setting them ablaze in Nigeria’s embattled northeast, sources told the Associated Press.

 Nigerians flee deadly violence

In Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state similarly, tens of thousands of Nigerians were caught fleeing deadly attacks by armed extremists and the continuing clashes between the rebels and national forces, UN agencies said in a statement.  As many as 65,000 Nigerians were being displaced due to the rising violence in the country. “Assailants looted and burned down private homes, warehouses of humanitarian agencies, a police station, a clinic, and also a UNHCR facility,” the UN agency’s spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva.  It marked the third such attack in a week, he said. 

The constant reports of the armed clashes and violence in Nigeria are “very worrying,” spokesman Jens Laerke of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said in a statement.  “The situation on the ground is extremely critical,” he said. “If this continues, it will be impossible, maybe for longer periods of time, for us to deliver aid to people who desperately need it.”

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Published April 27th, 2021 at 07:48 IST

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