Group returns to retake Nigeria town

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Boko Haram extremists have overrun a key crossroads and military outpost in northeastern Nigeria, residents and authorities said Saturday. Gudumbali is a town to which just months ago the government encouraged thousands of displaced people to return.

The extremists attacked on Friday afternoon, said the Borno state secretary of the self-defense hunters association, Bunu Bukar.

“Suddenly, I saw people running all over the place shouting, ‘They have come! They have come!’” resident Umara Modu said. “I saw the attackers right inside our town but, surprisingly, they told us to calmly take our property and move out because we are not the target.”

“I will never go back to Gudumbali again, no matter the assurance, because we went back after the military authority and the Borno state government promised us adequate security,” Modu said.

Security forces had no immediate comment.

The fighters are thought to be with the Boko Haram faction under Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi that has the backing of the Islamic State organization. That faction, also called the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, claimed responsibility but announced no deaths, saying the military fled and that tanks and other vehicles and weapons were destroyed or seized, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist groups’ statements.