Boko Haram Disguised as Preacher, kill scores in Borno

Recent Timeline of attacks:

Sunday - Tuesday: At least 200 people killed by gunmen in military dress in a wave of attacks on six villages in the Gwoza area of Borno state.
Wednesday: Some 45 people killed by militants posing as preachers in Barderi village near Maiduguri, the capital Borno State
Thursday: Two killed in gunfire exchange in village of Madagali, Adamawa state

Boko Haram Islamist militants launched an attack in a village near the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing about 45 people.

Speaking to the BBC, a Survivors said the attackers said they had come to preach, before opening fire on a crowd that gathered. Meanwhile, residents and officials fear at least 200 people were killed in a wave of attacks earlier this week.

The militants came into the village of Barderi, near the University of Maiduguri on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday night, telling people to gather to hear them preach, but then turned the guns on the crowd.

The insurgents have used various tactics to gather residents together when they enter a village before attacking them.
In Tuesday's attack on Attagara village in the remote Gwoza area of Borno state, people believed the gunmen - who were dressed in military uniforms - were soldiers who had come to provide protection after an earlier attack on Sunday.

One witness, quoted by the Associated Press, said the militants gathered people together in the centre of the village before they began "to fire continuously for a very long time until all that had gathered were dead".

The local MP, Peter Biye, said that it was impossible to know exactly how many people had died because everyone who could do so, had fled into the nearby hills and there was no-one to count the bodies.The militants came into the village of Barderi, near the University of Maiduguri on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday night, telling people to gather to hear them preach, but then turned the guns on the crowd.

The insurgents have used various tactics to gather residents together when they enter a village before attacking them.

In Tuesday's attack on Attagara village in the remote Gwoza area of Borno state, people believed the gunmen - who were dressed in military uniforms - were soldiers who had come to provide protection after an earlier attack on Sunday.

One witness, quoted by the Associated Press, said the militants gathered people together in the centre of the village before they began "to fire continuously for a very long time until all that had gathered were dead".

The local MP, Peter Biye, told the BBC that it was impossible to know exactly how many people had died because everyone who could do so, had fled into the nearby hills and there was no-one to count the bodies.

Maiduguri and surrounding areas have not suffered many attacks since a state of emergency was imposed a year ago.

Remote areas are now usually targeted instead.

President Jonarthan administration has been facing growing pressure both at home and abroad to do more to tackle Boko Haram insurgents that has since kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April.

Boko Haram group has waged an increasingly bloody insurgency since 2009 in an attempt to create an Islamic state in Nigeria - and thousands of people have died in their attacks and the subsequent security crackdown.
The founded in 2002 initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language, launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja. Some three million people affected

Declared terrorist group by US in 2013.

Source