Boko Haram raid kills five in Nigeria: residents

At least five people were killed and six others injured in a nighttime Boko Haram raid and suicide attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, residents said today.

A male suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in the open in Tungushe village in Borno state at about 12:15 am.

The blast was followed by indiscriminate gunfire from Boko Haram jihadists lurking in the dark, said Mustapha Muhammad, a civilian militia leader in the area.

"Five people have been killed and six others injured in the attack," Muhammad said by telephone from the village, which lies six kiometres (nearly four miles) north of the Borno state capital Maiduguri.

Tungushe resident Umara Kyari, who gave similar casualty toll, said the attackers torched eight thatched houses and three vehicles before stealing about 100 cows.

"Fortunately all the cows returned to the village," said Kyari. "I think the attackers are not used to herding cows and could not control them." Boko Haram regularly uses suicide bombers, mostly women and young girls, to target mosques, schools, bus stations and military locations.

Its nine-year armed violence to establish a hardline Islamic state in remote northeastern Nigeria has killed more than 20,000 people.