Originally published on January 28, 2014
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Dozens of people were killed in northeast Nigeria on Sunday in attacks allegedly carried out by Islamist group Boko Haram (January 26). The attacks took place in Waga Chakawa village in Adamawa state and in Kawuri village in Borno state.
Reuters reports suspected insurgents set off bombs and fired into a congregation in a Catholic church in Waga Chakawa village. They then burned down houses and took residents hostage in an attack that lasted four hours, according to witnesses. At least 22 people were killed.
In a separate attack, at least 40 people were killed in Kawuri village when explosives were detonated in a busy marketplace, according to the BBC. Assailants then set fire to homes and gunned down residents who tried to flee.
A total of 62 people were killed in the attacks, according to Reuters, although some other media outlets reported as many as 100 people dead.
Reports reports, "President Goodluck Jonathan is struggling to contain Boko Haram in remote rural regions in the country's northeast corner, where the sect launched an uprising in 2009.
"Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia law on a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims, has killed thousands over the past four and a half years and is considered the biggest security risk in Africa's top oil exporter and second largest economy after South Africa.
"Its fighters' favourite targets have traditionally been security forces, politicians who oppose them and Christian minorities in the largely Muslim north."
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