70 dead in three Boko Haram attacks

Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed 70 people in three attacks in the Northeast in recent days, officials said yesterday.
Boko Haram has killed hundreds of civilians and members of security forces in recent weeks, as it continues to resist an intensified military crackdown ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan more than five months ago.
Gunmen fired on a convoy of people returning from a wedding party in Borno state on Saturday, killing 30 people, including the groom, said Ahmad Sajo, spokesman for neighboring Adamawa state. The military said only five were killed.
In Borno’s Gulumba village, gunmen on motorbikes and in a pick-up truck shot dead 27 people and wounded another 12 in the early hours of Thursday, the Chairman of Bama Local Government, Baba Shehu Gulumba, told reporters.
Gulumba said a further 13 people were killed on Saturday in a similar attack in nearby T-Junction village.
Insurgents also set houses ablaze and stole motorbikes, cars, livestock and 3.5 million naira ($22,100), he said.
President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states in May and a military surge initially reduced attacks in major towns and cities across the north.
But Boko Haram’s fighters have retreated to the semi-arid region towards Niger in the north and to the forested hills and caves on the border with Cameroon, where they have been able to regroup and counter-attack ever since.