Kano: A suspected Boko Haram attack on a military base and police station in northeastern Nigeria left at least 33 people dead, a security source said on Wednesday.
The source, who requested anonymity, said 18 soldiers and 15 police lost their lives in the assault in the town of Buni Yadi, in Yobe state, at about 8.00 pm on Monday.
“The militants arrived in vans wearing military uniform and went to the army barracks overlooking the police station,” the source added.
“They were mistaken for soldiers and the soldiers opened the gates. They then began the attack.”
Multiple witnesses said on Tuesday that the insurgents fired first on soldiers manning a checkpoint before razing the local police station.
The home of a local government leader and several government buildings were then torched before they turned their guns on an empty primary school.
Details were slow to emerge because of poor mobile phone reception in the area, where the militants, who are seeking to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, have destroyed much of the telecommunication infrastructure.
Boko Haram gunmen on April 14 seized more than 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok.
