KANO, Nov 18 — Gunmen riding camels and horses killed six people in a village in northeast Nigeria, a region beset by Islamist attacks, police said yesterday. 

"Armed bandits” launched a predawn attack on Thursday on Aljannaru, a village in Adamawa state, before encountering a local self-defence group, police spokesman Suleiman Nguroje said.

They "clashed with some hunters, which led to the killing of six (people)”, Nguroje said. 

Bandit attacks in northern Nigeria have risen in recent years, targeting remote areas and livestock.

Villages in southern Adamawa have also been repeatedly attacked by Boko Haram jihadists, leading to the rise of hunters and other self-defence groups to fight them.

In 2014, hunters helped force out Boko Haram militants occupying parts of Adamawa, yet sporadic attacks by the group persist.

In a separate incident in neighbouring Borno state, three Nigerian soldiers were killed on Sunday when their armoured vehicle was hit by a projectile fired by Boko Haram jihadists, army sources told AFP.

Fighters attacked the convoy at a military post outside the town of Gwoza, near the border with Cameroon, the sources said.

"We lost three soldiers in the attack” said an army officer speaking on condition of anonymity, adding soldiers were injured and an army vehicle destroyed. 

The decade-long jihadist conflict has spilt into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. It has claimed 35,000 lives and displaced around two million in Nigeria alone. — AFP