Hawzah News Agency (Mailari, Nigeria) - The militants stormed the village of Mailari in the Guzamala region of Borno State in trucks, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Abatcha Umar, a local villager who survived the attack, said he had seen 19 dead bodies, including that of his own brother.

The locals had tipped off the Nigerian troops in the nearby town of Gudumbali about the presence of terrorists around the village, but no action was taken, he said.

An aid worker at a camp that received the survivors, and who declined to be identified, put the death toll at 63. The aid worker said hundreds of people from villages in the area had fled to the camp for the displaced in Monguno.

Attacks of this sort in the area are usually attributed to Boko Haram and other Daesh affiliates operating in northeastern Nigeria.

The latest attack is a blow to the government’s efforts to eliminate the Daesh-inspired militancy in the country.

In recent months, the military has suffered its heaviest defeats in years, commanders have been repeatedly replaced, and soldiers belonging to special forces have mutinied against their commanders over the dire conditions.

The militancy has left at least 20,000 people dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless since 2009.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general, came to power in 2015 on a platform of stamping out Boko Haram. But despite losing swathes of territory, the group continues to stage attacks targeting both civilians and military targets.

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