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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Boko Haram militants killed dozens of people in a nighttime assault on a village in northeastern Nigeria that is home to residents who had recently returned from a camp for internally displaced persons, authorities said.
The attack on Darul Jamal in the Bama local government area took place late Friday and killed at least 60 people, a resident of the village, Mohammed Babagana, told The Associated Press.
Borno state Gov. Babagana Zulum, who visited the attacked community late Saturday evening, confirmed to reporters that over 60 died in the attack.
“We sympathize with the people and have pleaded with them not to abandon their homes as we have made arrangements to improve the security and provide food and other lifesaving items that they have lost,” Zulum said.
The chairman of Bama’s local government, Modu Gujja, said over a dozen houses were burnt and more than 100 people were forced to flee.
Taiwo Adebayo, a researcher specializing in Boko Haram at the Institute for Security Studies, spoke to residents of Darual Jamal and said the killings on Friday night were carried out by a faction of Boko Haram known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis, took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. The conflict has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors, including Niger, and resulted in the death of around 35,000 civilians and the displacement of more than 2 million others, according to the United Nations.
Boko Haram split into two factions after the death of the group’s longtime leader, Abubakar Shekau, in 2021.
One faction is backed by the Daesh group and is known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. It has become notorious for targeting military positions.
The other faction, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, or JAS, has increasingly resorted to attacking civilians and perceived collaborators and thrives on robberies and abductions for ransom.
“When JAS attacks and kills a lot of people like they did last night in Bama, it’s usually that they suspect the victims of spying for the rival ISWAP or the military,” Adebayo told the AP.
The Bama local government area was the target of several Boko Haram attacks a decade ago, forcing many residents to flee. Following military operations in the area in recent years, authorities had resettled displaced people in several communities, most recently the village of Darul Jamal in July.
Kaana Ali, a Darul Jamal resident, said he decided to leave the community for good after he confirmed the deaths of close family friends in the attack on Friday. “But the governor is still begging us to stay back as more protection would be provided to secure our community,” he said.

KYIV: Russia hit Ukraine’s capital with drone and missiles Sunday in the largest aerial attack on the country since the war began, killing at least two people and leaving smoke rising from the roof of a key government building.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 805 drones and decoys, officials said.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, confirmed to The Associated Press that Sunday’s attack was the largest Russian drone strike since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Russia also launched 13 missiles of various types.
Ukraine shot down and neutralized 747 drones and 4 missiles, according to a statement from the Air Force.
There were nine missile hits and 56 drone strikes in 37 locations across Ukraine. Debris from downed drones and missiles fell on eight locations.
Associated Press reporters saw a plume of smoke rising from the roof of Kyiv’s cabinet of ministers building, but it was not immediately clear if the smoke was the result of a direct hit or debris, which would mark an escalation in Russia’s air campaign. Russia has so far avoided targeting government buildings in the city center.
The building is the home of Ukraine’s Cabinet, housing the offices of its ministers. Police blocked access to the building as fire trucks and ambulances arrived.
Ukrainian officials said two people were killed and at least 17 injured in the attack.
“For the first time, the government building was damaged by an enemy attack, including the roof and upper floors,” said Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. “We will restore the buildings, but lost lives cannot be returned.”
“The world must respond to this destruction not only with words, but with actions. There is a need to strengthen sanctions pressure — primarily against Russian oil and gas,” she said.
The two people killed were a mother and her 3-month old child, whose bodies were dug out of the rubble by rescuers, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. Initially Tkachenko said the child was 1 year old. At least 10 locations in Kyiv were damaged in the attack, he added.
Russian drones struck a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district and a four-story residential building in Darnytskyi district, according to Mayor Vitallii Klitschko. Tkachenko said these were direct hits.
Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
The attack comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged US President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.