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Boko Haram gunmen Saturday killed 23 people in northeastern Nigeria, Borno state, after attending a funeral, local militia and residents said.
Around 10:30 GMT, the attackers of three motorbikes fired on a group of men as they were returning from burial in Nganzai district, near the capital Maiduguri, said the chief local militia Bunu Bukar Mustapha.
"Our men found 23 bodies at the scene of the attack, which occurred this morning," Mustapha said.
The men were returning to Badu Kuluwu from the nearby village of Goni Abachari, where they had attended the funeral prayers of a member of their family, Mustapha said.
A Nganzai District official confirmed both the incident and the death toll.
"I have received calls from Nganzai that Boko Haram has killed 23 people near Badu Kuluwu this morning," said the official who asked not to be identified for his own safety.
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Thousands of Nigerian refugees still fear Boko Haram violence |
Local hunters and militia recovered the bodies after the survivors returned to the village and alerted them, said Saleh Masida, a resident of Nganzai.
Boko Haram fighters repeatedly attacked Nganzai District.
Last September, the group killed eight people and stole cattle from two villages in the area, after residents tried to stop them from taking their animals.
Boko Haram and his Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-supported ISWAP have intensified their attacks on civilian and military targets in recent months.
On Thursday, Boko Haram fighters attacked an IDP camp outside Maiduguri, killing two residents and looting food after setting fire to a nearby military base.
The decade-long conflict has affected neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, killing some 27,000 people and forcing more than two million people to flee their homes.
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