Boko Haram aligned itself with the Islamic State and changed its name to the Islamic State in West Africa last winter.

“At least 14 killed in Boko Haram Christmas day gun attack in Nigeria,” AFP, December 26, 2015 (thanks to John):

At least 14 people were killed and several others injured by Boko Haram gunmen in a Christmas Day attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, vigilantes said on Saturday.

Attacking astride bicycles, the jihadists invaded Kimba village in flashpoint Borno state around 10:00pm on Friday, opening fire on residents and torching their homes.

“The gunmen killed 14 people and burnt the whole village before they fled,” Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram, told AFP.

“Not a single house was spared in the arson,” another vigilante, Musa Suleiman, said after visiting the razed village.

Hundreds of Kimba residents fled to Biu nearby, where they were put up in a refugee camp already brimming with people running from Boko Haram.

The attack comes just days before Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s self-imposed deadline to stamp out the group expires on December 31 and in the same week he said that Nigeria has “technically” defeated the jihadists.

Buhari took office in May vowing to end the six-year insurgency that has killed over 17,000 people and spooked much-needed investors in Africa’s largest economy and foremost oil producer.

Nigerian troops have won back territory from Boko Haram, but in response the jihadists have increasingly resorted to suicide bombers – many of them young children – to wage war for an independent Islamic state.

The militants have damaged what little infrastructure existed in the country’s underdeveloped north at a time when the government is facing a cash crunch as a result of the free-falling oil price.

A week ago, Boko Haram killed 30 people and injured 20 others in raids on three villages near the home of the Nigerian army chief.

Raids on the Islamic militants’ camps near the border with Cameroon this week yielded women and children thought to have been held captive as well as 43 suspected enemy fighters and intelligence about bomb-making, Nigerian army says An estimated 2,000 women and children have been seized by Boko Haram since January 2014

The jihadists have allied themselves with the Islamic State group, but experts doubt the scale and scope of the collaboration….