Boko Haram attack kills 8 civilians in Nigeria, says military

Boko Haram insurgents killed eight people in Nigeria during an attack on the northeastern city of Maiduguri, a civilian militia leader said on Saturday. "We recovered a total of eight bodies of residents killed in the Boko Haram attack," late on Friday, Haram Abba Aji-Kalli of the Civilian JTF militia told AFP.

The attack came hours before Nigeria's electoral commission announced it was postponing Saturday's presidential and legislative vote for a week. The delay has been condemned by both President Muhammadu Buhari, who is standing for a second term, and his chief opponent former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.

Boko Haram fighters shot residents while two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Friday attack on Maiduguri's Jiddari Polo neighbourhood. The killings came after the group overran a military base north of Maiduguri on Thursday, stealing an armoured vehicle and torching buildings in an attack that left "several soldiers" missing, two military sources said on condition of anonymity.

The day before, at least four people were killed when the insurgents struck a convoy belonging to the governor of northeast Nigeria's Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital. In the hard-fought presidential campaign, Atiku has seized on Buhari's failure to defeat the group while the president has claimed the insurgency is weakening.

(With inputs from agencies.)