At the end of April, around 30 scrap metal workers were killed in the village of Mudu, in the same district, by suspected militants of the Islamic State in West Africa.
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All the victims are men who belonged to a community of scrap metal workers. At least 23 people were executed by armed men on Tuesday, June 7, in northeastern Nigeria, AFP learned Thursday, June 8, from local militias. “At the moment 23 bodies have been found, all massacred by the terrorists”assured Babakura Kolo, the head of a local self-defense militia, contacted with difficulty by the news agency because of the destruction of telephone relays by the jihadists.
Earlier, militants suspected of belonging to the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap) group had abducted the victims among a group of around 50 scrap metal workers who had gone to the village of Magdala, in the district of Dikwa, in the east of Borno State, about twenty kilometers from the Chadian border. “Three people managed to return to Dikwa, but nothing is known about the fate of the twenty or so other scrap dealers”, added the local militia official.
These scrap dealers, who travel a lot in search of scrap metals, are frequently accused by jihadists of informing the authorities about the movements of militants in the region, the cradle of the Islamist group Boko Haram, from which Iswap seceded in 2016. At the end of April, around 30 scrap dealers had been killed in the village of Mudu, in the same district, by suspected Iswap militants.
The Nigerian army has recently intensified its ground and air operations against Iswap and Boko Haram militants, including managing to eliminate several of their commanders, according to the military staff.
Jihadist-related violence in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 claimed the lives of 40,000 people and forced two million others to flee their homes, according to the UN.
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