NIGERIA Islamic militant attack kills hundreds

Associated Press

LAGOS, NIGERIA

Islamic militants who have triggered international outrage over the kidnapping of more than 270 Nigerian schoolgirls opened fire on a busy marketplace, killing hundreds of people in a new spasm of violence in the country’s northeast.

The attack escalates Nigeria’s growing crisis from a campaign of bombings, massacres and abductions being waged by the Boko Haram terrorist network in its campaign to impose an Islamic state on Africa’s most-populous nation.

As many as 300 people were killed in the assault late Monday on the town of Gamboru Ngala on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon. The extremists opened fire on a marketplace bustling with shoppers taking advantage of the cooler nighttime temperatures in the semi-desert region, then rampaged through the town for 12 hours, setting houses ablaze and shooting those who tried to escape.

The attack and hundreds of casualties were confirmed by Borno state information commissioner Mohammed Bulama, who spoke to The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday.

Nigerian federal Senator Ahmed Zannah blamed fighters of the Boko Haram terrorist network that has claimed responsibility for the April 15 kidnapping of 276 teenage girls from their boarding school in Chibok, in northeastern Borno state. The insurgents threatened to sell the young women into slavery in a video seen by AP.