Nigerian officials have said that 16 Boko Haram extremists and two soldiers had been killed when the extremists tried to ride explosives-laden motorcycles into an army base in Borno Stare, the country’s volatile northeast.
An army spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka, stated Saturday that soldiers at the base in Rann in Borno State repelled the extremists with a gunfight that went on for hours.
He said that two soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber drove into a truck and exploded.
Kukasheka said that soldiers found most of the bodies of the attackers Saturday morning, but he added that “quite a number escaped with gunshot wounds.
Boko Haram’s nearly seven-year-old insurgency has killed some 20,000 people and forced two million from their homes. The Nigeria-based group last year began regular attacks in neighbouring countries.