Alwaght- At least 150 people have been shot dead or drowned in a river in northeastern Nigeria while fleeing violence by the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists.
Reports say dozens of terrorists arrived on motorcycles and in a car on Thursday last week and opened fire, scattering terrified residents of Kukuwa-Gari in the violence-hit Yobe State.
Witnesses said the bodies of many of the drowned were pulled out by locals several kilometers away.
The news of the ambush took five days to emerge because the terrorists have destroyed telecommunications masts around the village.
The ambush came during the region's peak rainy season, when most waterways in northeastern Nigeria are swollen and can flow with dangerous speed.
Last week Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari swore in a new set of military chiefs and ordered them to end Boko Haram’s bloody six-year reign of terror within three months.
A five-nation regional force of 8,700 troops from Nigeria and its neighbors has been set up to fight Boko Haram.
Chadian leader Idriss Deby declared on August 12 that efforts to combat Boko Haram had succeeded in "decapitating" the group and would be wrapped up "by the end of the year".
Deby told reporters in the capital N'Djamena that Boko Haram was no longer led by the notorious commander Abubakar Shekau and that his successor, whom he named as Mahamat Daoud, was open to talks.
But Shekau dramatically rebuffed the claim in an audio recording released on Sunday and authenticated by security analysts.
Boko Haram, whose name means Western education is forbidden, has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in Nigeria since the beginning of their militancy in 2009 that has so far claimed the lives of about 15,000 people.
Boko Haram terrorists have also pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group.