Several people have been reportedly killed as the military engaged militants suspected to be members of Boko Haram sect in a fierce gun battle that reportedly lasted for hours on Saturday.

The insurgents were said to have attacked Dalori and Walori villages, on outskirts of Maiduguri, at around some minutes past 7pm on Saturday night.

Dalori village is a few kilometres away from an Internally Displaced Persons camp, which is said to be the most populous IDP camp in the country.

Sources said Boko Haram insurgents usually mounted surprise attacks at that hour of the day, as they had studied the movement of the military.


 
Residents, including students of the University of Maiduguri, were said to have scampered for safety while the gunfire lasted and explosion rocked the area.

Sources in Maiduguri told our correspondent that fighting was still on going at the time of this report at 10pm. “The fighting started at around 7.30pm but we don’t know how many people have been killed or injured,” the source said.

Another source said, ‘No it is not Dalori camp, there is a village behind the camp called Dalori gari; that is the one which is being attacked by Boko Haram. They have killed many and razed the village.”

The recent attack in Maiduguri comes a day after at least 15 persons were killed, and many others injured, in a twin bomb blast that rocked the Gombi Grain Market in Adamawa State last Friday.

Also, last Wednesday, twin bomb blasts had rocked the Chibok community in Borno State, killing 11 persons and injuring 35 others.

The bomb blasts reportedly went off at a military checkpoint and a market simultaneously, shattering the fragile security situation in the town where about 219 school girls were abducted by the Boko Haram sect in 2014. The girls have yet to be rescued.