Boko Haram Islamists shot four people dead and abducted five others in an ambush on a highway in northeastern Nigeria, local vigilantes said on Monday.

Several gunmen opened fire on a bus and a car near Nwajurko village in Borno State on Sunday, killed four passengers and seized survivors, who tried to flee, according to witnesses.

“The gunmen, who hid inside homes along the road, emerged and opened fire on a car as it approached, killed one person, while the rest fled into the bush.

“The attackers also fired shots on a bus, moments later, killed three people and seized five others, and three more passengers were injured,” said Yuram Bura, a member of a vigilante group battling the jihadists alongside the military.

Abbagana Saleh, also a local vigilante, said the dead and wounded were taken to hospital in Biu, 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the scene of the attack.

“When we received information on the attack, we went to the scene and recovered four dead bodies and three people, who sustained injuries from gunshots.

“We discovered the dead victims near the abandoned vehicles, while the injured were found in nearby bushes,” Saleh added.

The Vigilantes said victims had been travelling to Biu from Damboa,‎ which troops liberated from a nine-month occupation by Boko Haram in April.

Boko Haram’s bloody insurgency in Nigeria has left more than 15,000 people dead since 2009 and has increasingly spread across the country’s borders, with Chad and Cameroon suffering deadly suicide bombings in recent months.

The extremist group, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden”, has carried on its campaign of attacks on security forces, suicide bombings and bloody raids on villages across Nigeria’s north and eastern borders despite a major regional military campaign against them.

AFP