Nigerian villagers fleeing after attack

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Villagers in northeastern Nigeria are fleeing their homes, leaving everything behind, after armed men on motorbikes roared into the area and gunned down funeral mourners Saturday, killing at least 65 people, officials said Monday.

Officials attributed the attack to Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group that has terrorized the region for the past 10 years, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault.

The attack Saturday, in the area of Nganzai, north of the city of Maiduguri, was in retaliation for an earlier clash, officials said.

Villagers have formed defense groups, armed with hunting guns and knives, to resist Boko Haram. People in the village that was attacked had repelled a militant assault two weeks earlier, said Mohammed Bulama, council chairman of the Nganzai area in Borno state. He said the villagers had killed 11 Boko Haram fighters and seized 10 AK-47 rifles.

Bulama said Boko Haram gunmen had been moving freely around Borno state, rustling cattle and “carting away foodstuff from our people.” Villagers who inherited their cattle and had spent their lives herding them felt the “unbearable pain” of losing them overnight, he said.

Around noon Saturday, the Boko Haram fighters “came on a reprisal mission, attacking mourners at a graveyard in the area,” Bulama said. In addition to those who were confirmed killed, at least 10 people were injured and dozens were still missing.

The attack came just over a month after at least 30 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing in Borno that bore the hallmarks of a Boko Haram operation.