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Maiduguri: Islamic militants attacked a remote village in northeastern Nigeria overnight, killing 20 people and leaving two critically injured, local officials said Wednesday, April 22.

It was the latest violence in Africa’s most populous country that has long been battling a complex security crisis.

The attack took place late on Tuesday in Pubagu, a community in a remote area on the fringes of Sambisa forest in Borno state, the epicenter of Nigeria’s long fight against an Islamic insurgency. Villagers said they buried the victims on Wednesday and attributed the attack to the extremist Boko Haram group.

The local council chairman, Mwada Saidu Uba, told The Associated Press that the village had previously been considered a safe haven.

“Pubagu is one of the locations in our council area that had never suffered such an attack until yesterday,” he said after the funerals. The two injured were receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, he added.

Usman Rumirgo, a local ward official, said the assailants set several houses ablaze before leaving the area.

Vulnerable rural communities regularly come under fire from Islamic extremists and bandits who take advantage of Nigeria’s vast rural areas and security gaps.

Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups active in Nigeria are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, affiliated with the Islamic State group and is known as Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. There is also the IS-linked Lakurawa, as well as other “bandit” groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining.