Borno Bloodied By Militants Again

FILE: Soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army prepare to leave Maiduguri in a heavily armed convoy on the road to Damboa in Borno State northeast Nigeria on March 25, 2016.

At least 50 people were killed by militants on Sunday around the town of Rann in Nigeria's Borno state, in the country's northeastern tip near the border with Cameroon, witnesses told Reuters.

The people of Rann, in Nigeria's northeast, blamed the latest fatal attack on Boko Haram, an Islamist group seeking to control and impose Sharia law.

One, farmer Agid Muhammad, described the carnage.

"A large number of Boko Haram on motorcycles armed with guns and machetes surrounded our people who were working on their farms and held them hostages before killing them one by one," Muhammad said, adding that his uncle was still missing.

Muhammad, who recently came back to Rann after staying in an internally-displaced persons camp, said the victims "Were tied with rope and slaughtered. As I'm speaking to you," he told Reuters, "many people aren't accounted for."

Another farmer, Harun Tom, said ""We are all in pain over the killing of our innocent people who were working on their farmland.," he said. "We buried 50 people today in Rann. They were clearing their farmlands ahead of the rainy season, while others went for firewood."

Army spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the reported attack.