Massacre in Nigeria leaves at least 110 civilians dead

Abuja:At 110 people were killed, mostly farmers, in a "gruesome" massacre in northeastern Nigeria, authorities reported on Sunday.

According to reports the killings took place in the early afternoon of Saturday in the village of Koshobe and other rural communities in the Jere local government area near Maiduguri, the capital of the conflict-hit Borno state, Al Jazeera reported.

Witnesses said that "Armed men on motorcycles led a brutal attack on civilian men and women who were harvesting their fields," adding that several women are believed to have been kidnapped.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the armed group Boko Haram and its splinter faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), have carried out a series of deadly assaults in the area in recent years.

Both groups are active in the region, where fighters have killed more than 30,000 people in the past decade during an armed campaign that has displaced some two million and has spread to neighbouring countries including Niger, Chad and Cameroon.(UNI)