TEHRAN, Nov. 01 (MNA) – At least 40 people were killed in Nigeria's Yobe state between Monday and Tuesday after suspected Boko Haram militants shot at villagers and set off a land mine.

In the first significant attack on the northern eastern state in eighteen months, suspected Boko Haram militants fired at villagers and detonated a land mine in Yobe state, Nigeria, between Monday and Tuesday, killing at least forty people, the police reported on Wednesday.

According to Abdulkarim Dungus, the state police spokesperson, the attack occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) on Monday at Gurokayeya village in Gaidam local government in Yobe State.

He said that on Tuesday, while villagers were returning from burying the victims of the previous attack, a land mine exploded, killing at least twenty of them. He said that gunmen had opened fire on the villagers, killing at least seventeen of them.

MNA/PR