As many as 65,000 people have fled the northeastern Nigeria town of Damasak following a series of jihadist attacks, the UN refugee agency said on Friday. In the latest violence on Wednesday, militants attacked the garrison before being forced back into the town itself, military sources and residents said. The UN said eight others were killed Wednesday, while locals said ten bodies were burried and 20 people were injured. The attacks have underscored the jihadists’ continued ability to hit the armed forces more than a decade into Nigeria’s grinding insurgency. xMore than 36,000 have been killed and two million displaced by the fighting in Nigeria that has spread into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Source: The Guardian April 16, 2021 11:26 UTC