Boko Haram: 11 of its own members beheaded - witnesses

The Islamist group Boko Haram on Friday beheaded 11 of its own fighters in north-eastern Nigeria, said an official representing witnesses to the killings.

The 11 were executed because they had left a Boko Haram camp in Sambisa Forest and wanted to surrender to the government, said Mahmud Babagana from the National Union of Road Transport Workers, members of which were witnesses to the murders.

The killings took place in Miringa village in Borno state.

"The truth is that many of these guys are tired of killing and
are beginning to repent. But some commanders of the sect won't let them do that," he added.

Meanwhile, two female suicide bombers on Thursday killed 11 people on a roadside in Borno state, according to the website Sahara Reporters.

The Thursday killings followed those of about 150 people in Borno villages earlier in the week.

Bukar Baba Ibrahim from the village of Kukawa, where about 100 people were slaughtered in mosques and in their homes said "I'm finished, my world has crumbled,"

Ibrahim said he had lost his three children, his father, his six siblings and his uncle in the attack.

"Being alive does not have any meaning to me now. I have lost all my people and I am all alone, no relatives, no house, because they burned our house with my people inside it. It would have been better if I had not survived," he said.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini condemned the killings and expressed confidence that "the Nigerian authorities will continue to fight terrorism with the utmost determination and urgency, respecting rules for engagement."

Since 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 10 000 people in northern Nigeria in its campaign to establish an Islamist state.