UN humanitarian convoy in Nigeria ambushed by Boko HaramLAGOS: A United Nations humanitarian convoy was ambushed by Boko Haram jihadists Thursday in Nigeria’s restive northeast, leaving several people wounded, the UN children’s agency and the Nigerian army said. “Unknown assailants attacked a humanitarian convoy that included staff from UNICEF, UNFPA, and IOM,” the statement added. It was the first such attack on aid workers in the volatile region, the epicenter of the seven-year Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s mainly-Muslim north. Boko Haram, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria, has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing more than 2.6 million people since 2009. “The convoy was travelling from Bama to Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria, returning from delivering desperately needed assistance,” when it was ambushed, UNICEF said in a statement Friday.

Source: Manila Times July 29, 2016 10:07 UTC