Boko Haram strikes in Baga, kills two soldiers

Two soldiers were reportedly killed after Boko Haram extremists attacked a military vehicle in Baga area of Borno State.

According to residents of the volatile community, six other soldiers and a member of the civilian vigilante were critically injured when their vehicle hit a mine planted by the Islamists just outside the town on Sunday.

The attack and the mine explosion, according to natives of the area happened, as the military escorted some 1, 200 people from Baga on a brief return visit to their hometown from the Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

“Boko Haram fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a military van in an ambush in Baga which killed two soldiers and destroyed the vehicle,” a resident who gave his name as Karimbe Maina told newsmen on Tuesday.

“The soldiers were driving back to their base outside Baga to mobilise more troops to help drag an armoured vehicle stuck in the mud across a town on the shores of Lake Chad”, he added.

“Following the attack which killed two soldiers, there was a prolonged gun battle ‎between soldiers and the Boko Haram gunmen, which forced the gunmen to flee,” said a vigilante member Haruna Shuaibu.

“We had to spend the night in Kauyen Kuros as a result of the explosion which injured six soldiers and a member of the civilian vigilante”, said Bulama.

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