No fewer than five persons including soldiers and a village head were reportedly killed when Boko Haram ambushed a military convoy in Marte Local Government Area of Borno State.
It was gathered that the ambush occurred near New Marte on Monday night, with an unspecified number of people wounded in the attack.
According to a security source who spoke with The Bureau Newspaper, the overall chairman of a civilian taskforce in Marte was among the victims.
Five people, including Mai musinema (the village head), Mai Babashehu Mai Musinema, two soldiers, the overall chairman of CJTF in Marte LGA, and two others lost their lives to the incident,” the source said.
Those who were critically injured were said to have been taken to Maiduguri for medical treatment while others with minor injuries were in New Marte.
“They started fixing some portions of the bad road between New Marte and Dikwa two days ago to enable smooth drive, because the area is known for attacks on motorists. They were going back yesterday (Monday) when they came under a heavy attack by insurgents and five persons were killed, while others sustained varying degrees of injury,” a top CJTF source said.
“We lost two chairmen including the overall chairman in Marte LGA and the chairman who coordinated the New Marte,” he added.
The source stated that the deceased had been buried according to the Islamic rite in New Marte.
This comes barely three months after a Superintendent of Police and Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was killed in Marte.