More than 100 died in a series of attacks in northeast Nigeria launched by a radical Muslim sect, a Nigerian Red Cross official said Sunday, as sect gunmen shot and killed another police officer.
Ibrahim Bulama told The Associated Press he expected the number of dead to rise as local clinics and hospitals tabulate the casualty figures from the attacks Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.
While the hard-hit city remained calm and its Muslim inhabitants celebrated a religious holiday Sunday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet, Bulama said.
Meanwhile, the sect known locally as Boko Haram killed a police inspector Sunday in the city of Maiduguri, the sect's spiritual home about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Damaturu. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.
Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector to death, Midenda said. The sect members later allowed his family to drive the car away, he said.
The killing prompted a frank acknowledgment from the police commander, whose men remain under siege from constant assassinations by the radical sect.
"Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe," Midenda said.