The Boko Haram group in a fresh attack on a village in Adamawa state have left five people dead, the community leader said.

He said a group of 10 stormed Kaya village at about 9:00 pm (2100) in Madagali area and broke into two homes,leaving four people dead and another resident was shot dead when he tried to come to the rescue of the victims, Maina Ularama, a former Madagali local government chairman, told AFP.

“Five people were shot dead last night by Boko Haram in Kaya village, three of them brothers living in the same house,” he said.

“They killed another person in a house close by. The fifth victim was killed when he rush towards the area to rescue the victims after hearing their cries for help.”

Samson Lawan, who lives in Kaya, gave a similar account. He said the gunmen looted medical supplies at the village clinic before fleeing into the bush.

“They were overheard saying telling one of them who wanted to set fire to homes that they were not in the village for arson,” Lawan said.

Kaya village has been attacked before in the insurgency, which since 2009 has killed at least 20,000 in northeast Nigeria and displaced more than 2.6 million.

In June 2016 Boko Haram jihadists killed 18 mourners in an attack on the village.

Adamawa was said to have been cleared of Boko Haram in late 2015, after they rampaged across the northeast, seizing towns and territory.

But attacks have continued in the north of the state, particularly around Madagali, which borders Borno state and the militants’ Sambisa Forest stronghold.

On Monday militants killed three people in a raid on nearby Pallam village where they burnt buildings and looted food supplies, in the first attack in Adamawa this year.

Elsewhere, nine others were killed in two separate attacks on people collecting firewood near the border town of Ngala, in Borno.

Ten people were killed and dozens injured in a twin suicide bombing in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Wednesday.