Seven troops, 11 civilians killed in Nigerian jihadist raid

At least 18 people, including seven troops, were killed when jihadists raided a base and a nearby community in northeast Nigeria's Borno state near the Cameroon border, residents, militia members and rangers told AFP on Thursday.

Africa's most populous nation is battling a 16-year insurgency, with the Nigerian army's attempts to fight the uptick in radical Islamist violence complicated by the presence of other armed groups in the region.

Fighters from the Boko Haram jihadist group attacked an army base outside Ngoshe village in Gwoza district late on Tuesday, dislodging the soldiers after a fierce gun battle, sources told AFP.

After the troops withdrew, the jihadists raided Ngoshe, killed residents in indiscriminate shootings and abducted dozens of women and children, the sources said.

Shu'aibu Habu, a local ranger in the area, said 11 people were killed in Ngoshe village and that rangers and volunteers recovered bodies of at least "seven soldiers" killed by the jihadists.

"We recovered the bodies of three soldiers inside the base and four others in the bush," Habu said.

"Eleven residents of Ngoshe, including women and children, were killed," Habu added.

The militants kidnapped several people, including the local imam and a military officer, the ranger said.

"They sacked a base and raided the village, killing and abducting many people," Babakura Kolo, a member of anti-jihadist militia assisting the military in the region, told AFP, without giving a toll.

He, however, said around 30 women and children were kidnapped.

Isa Laminu, another ranger who gave the same toll as Habu, said five of his relatives were among those abducted. Hindatu Musa Yahaya, a Ngoshe resident, said her sister was killed when "a stray bullet hit her in her bedroom" during the attack, but her four children were unharmed.

Nigerian military authorities have not issued a statement on the incident.

A security report seen by AFP said Nigerian military air strikes killed "more than 50" jihadists in their "hideouts" in Ngoshe on Tuesday, in an apparent response to the sacking of the base.

Since 2009, the jihadist insurgency in Nigeria, led primarily by Boko Haram and its rival faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, has left more than 40,000 dead and two million displaced in the northeast of the country, according to the United Nations.

Last month, the United States began deploying troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to the country's soldiers in fighting the jihadist groups.

The US Africa Command said that 200 troops were expected to join the deployment overall.

The deployment came after US President Donald Trump said the violence amounted to the "persecution" of Christians -- a framing long used by the US religious and political right wing.

Nigeria's government and many independent experts say Christians and Muslims alike are the victims of the country's security crises.