90 killed in Nigeria violence

At least 90 people were killed in an attack launched by insurgents in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, the stronghold of Boko Haram sect in the country, security sources said Sunday.

A group of gunmen in military uniforms Saturday night attacked Izge village, which is located in the southern part of the restive state, Xinhua quoted Commissioner of Police Lawan Tanko as saying.

According to Tanko, the attackers threw home-made bombs on roofs and shot indiscriminately at the villagers.

He said the security agency was still compiling casualties figure.

But other security sources said some 90 corpses were found at the village, which shares a border with Gwoza local government area, a place in the northeastern state where killings were recorded in the past.

The attackers threw improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on houses and other structures in the village while people were asleep, thereby killing and injuring scores of people, said a security source.

Adamu Izge, a resident of the village, said his father-in-law was also killed by the ruthless attackers while narrating the ordeal of the villagers in the night attack.

Some other villagers were burnt beyond recognition, the resident said.

Borno state, one of the three northeastern states in Nigeria under an emergency rule, is the headquarters of Boko Haram, a sect which has killed thousands of local and foreign citizens in its four-and-half years of insurgency in the West African country.

Last year, the US government named Boko Haram and Ansaru, a splinter group, as foreign terrorist groups, with an aim to join the Nigerian government to curtail the activities of the sect.