The Nigerian army says it has killed 13 suspected Boko Haram gunmen in a shootout near the border with Cameroon after an armed robbery at a currency exchange business.
"Our men succeeded in killing 13 suspected Boko Haram terrorists in a shootout near Digil village (in eastern Nigeria), where troops caught up with them after they robbed a bureau de change in Mubi," said Lieutenant Colonel Beyidi Martins, commander of a special army unit in Mubi.
Mubi, a town in Adamawa state, has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group that has killed thousands of people since 2009.
According to traders who witnessed the latest attack, a gang of about 30 gunmen stormed the currency exchange at a local market in the city late Wednesday, killing five traders and carting away money in various currencies before their encounter with the army.
Troops caught up with the fleeing gunmen 25 kilometres away and engaged them in a shootout, killing 13 of them.
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"We recovered rifles and stolen cash from the terrorists," Martins said.
The Nigerian army has repeatedly accused Boko Haram of armed robbery to fund its four-year insurgency.
In October, around 40 students were killed in Mubi in raids on off-campus student accommodation blamed on Boko Haram.
The military has in the past three weeks imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the town after another armed robbery targeting the town's main market.
