Boko Haram claims major attack on key northeast Nigerian city
MAIDUGURI -- Islamist insurgency Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack on Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday night that killed at least 14 people, the first major assault in 18 months on a key stronghold against the militants.
The raid took place six months after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram had "technically" been defeated by a military campaign that had pushed many insurgents deep into the remote Sambisa forest, near the border with Cameroon.
Maiduguri is the centre of the government's eight-year-old fight against Boko Haram, which has been trying to set up an Islamic caliphate in the northeast.
"We have killed those we can and have left with the bounties of war we are displaying now," said a voice on a video released by Boko Haram on Saturday, showing the group's fighters among piles of ammunition and other supplies.
"We are hale and hearty, contrary to claims that we have been killed," the voice said.
