Suspected Boko Haram militants kill 3 aid workers, 8 security personnel in Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram militantskilled at least three aid workers and eight members of thesecurity forces in an attack on a military facility in Nigeria'snortheastern Borno state late on Thursday, according to twosecurity reports seen by Reuters.

The raid in the town of Rann marks the latest high-profileassault byjihadists in the northeast, coming less than two weeks after militants abducted 110 girls from a school inDapchi in neighbouring Yobe state.

The United Nations confirmed three aid workers were killedin the attack in the town of Rann near the Cameroon border, andsaid a female nurse was missing andfeared abducted. It said it wasalso concerned other civilians may have been killed or injured.

The militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenades andtruck-mounted guns, initially overpowered soldiers in a firefight at the military facility, but the armed forces laterregained control, according to the two reports.

The whereabouts of two midwives are also unknown, accordingto an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson, whosaid no Red Cross staff were injured or missing.

We call on authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice and account.- Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian co-ordinator

Four soldiers and four police officers were killed,according to the Nigerian security reports.

The militants, armed with rocket-propelled grenades andtruck-mounted guns, initially overpowered soldiers in a firefight at the military barracks, but the armed forces laterregained control, according to the two reports.

The attack is a further setback for President MuhammaduBuhari, who has repeatedly said the Boko Haram insurgency hasbeen defeated. The raid comes nearly two weeks after militantsabducted 110 girls from a school in the town of Dapchi, some 400 kilometreswest of Rann.

The government said Friday it was extending toneighbouring countries the search for the girls taken in Dapchi, which is some 400 kilometres west of Rann.

Borno state, where Rann is situated, is the epicentre of theBoko Haram insurgency, which aims to create an Islamic state innortheast Nigeria. More than 20,000 people have been killed andsome two million forced to leave their homes since 2009.

Helping displaced residents

Two of the aid workers who died were contractors with theInternational Organization for Migration, working as co-ordinators at a camp for 55,000 displaced people in Rann, theUnited Nations said. The third was a doctor employed as aconsultant for UNICEF.

"We call on authorities to ensure the perpetrators arebrought to justice and account," Edward Kallon, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Nigeria, said in a statement.

IOM official Mohammed Abdiker said staff were "outraged andsaddened" by the death of their colleagues.

Attacks on aid workers are rare, but not unheard of, inNigeria. In December, four people were killed when a World Food Programmeconvoy was ambushed in Borno state.

Boko Haram held a swathof territory in northeast Nigeriaaround the size of Belgium in late 2014. It was pushed out of most of that land by Nigeria's army, backed by troops fromneighbouring countries, in early 2015.

Although it has failed to control large areas of land sincethen, the group continues to carry out suicide bombings and gunraids in northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

The camp for displaced people in Rann was bombed in anaccidental Nigerian Air Force strike last year, killing up to170 people.