KANO: Five people were killed when jihadists attacked their vehicles outside Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, militia leaders said on Sunday, adding more were feared dead.

Gunmen from the militant Islamic State group West Africa Province (ISWAP) stopped the vehicles on Saturday near Auno village, 20 kilometres from Maiduguri, and attacked drivers and passengers with machetes as they fled into the bush.

“We have so far recovered five dead bodies and 14 people with severe injuries all from machete cuts,” militia leader Babakura Kolo said. He said the death toll might rise since more bodies could still be in the bush.

“The terrorists killed several people in a machete-hacking spree, following them into the bush where bodies are still scattered,” he said. A team of police, militiamen and local hunters combed through the area on Sunday, evacuating the dead and the injured.

The rescue operation was hampered, however, by the team’s refusal to go deeper into the bush for fear of attack from the jihadists.

“We can’t go deep inside the bush which is littered with more bodies because the insurgents are very much around,” another militia Ibrahim Liman said.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020