Boko Haram extremists have killed nearly 150 people in northeastern Nigerian villages, gunning down men and children while they prayed in mosques and shooting women preparing food at home, witnesses said Thursday.
Dozens of militants stormed three remote villages in the flashpoint Borno state on Wednesday evening, setting houses ablaze in the bloodiest day of attacks by the extremist group since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May, according to the Egypt Independent.
The worst-affected village was Kukawa where the villagers were in several mosques, praying ahead of breaking their daylong fast, when the extremists attacked. They killed 97 people, mainly men, said self-defense spokesman Abbas Gava and a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give information to reporters, according to the Associated Press.
"They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle...They killed his children, about five of them," said a local named Kolo, reported AFP.
These attacks come just one day after the Islamic extremist group attacked a village 22 miles away and killed another 48 men and boys, according to witnesses who counted the dead, reports the New York Daily News.
All of this violence is just another step toward Boko Haram's goal of creating a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria's Northeast.
Boko Haram militants have been on an absolute rampage so far this year. They've launched various attacks on Nigerian villages, committed suicide bombings and have even released a video of them beheading a prisoner.
