Suspected militant Islamists have killed at least 30 people and abducted women and children in a raid in north-eastern Nigeria, officials say.

Most of the victims were travellers who were burnt to death while sleeping in their vehicles during an overnight stop, officials added

The attack took place in Auno town on a major highway in Borno State.

Militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoots have waged a brutal insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.

About 35,000 people have been killed, more than two million have been left homeless and hundreds have been abducted in the conflict.

Nigeria’s government has repeatedly said that the militants have been defeated, but attacks continue.

Borno State governor Babagana Zulum looked visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies during a visit to Auno following Sunday night’s attack, Nigeria’s privately owned This Day news site reports.

The militants came in trucks mounted with heavy weapons, before killing, burning, and looting, state government spokesman Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

The assailants “killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

It also confirmed the abduction of women and children, but did not give a number.

Residents said most of the victims were travelling to the state capital, Maiduguri, but were forced to sleep in Auno, about 25km (16 miles) away, because the military had shut the road leading into the city.

The military has not yet commented.

Maiduguri was once the headquarters of Boko Haram, but government forces eventually drove the group out of the city.

It is unclear whether the assault was carried out by Boko Haram or a breakaway faction linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The anticipated radio broadcast of the presentation of the 2020 budget by the Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade on Friday did not take place as the budget proposal was not ready.

The Director General of the state Budget Office, Abeng Onoh, confirmed to journalists on Friday in his office in Calabar that the budget would be ready by next week.

According to him, “When the governor asked us we told him we have not finished. I just finished speaking with the consultant.

“By Wednesday or Thursday (next week) the budget will be okay. The problem why the budget was not finished is not from us but the consultant. The network was always fluctuating. Sometimes he will come and sit down for the network to come up. It was not the governor’s fault.”

Onoh, who did not disclose the name of the consultant, further explained that, “What happened is that nearly all the states are operating 52 digits while we are still operating 35 digits mode of codification of projects in the budget. The whole world are using 52 digits. So we are converting from 35 digits to 52 digits. We have not really finished.

“If you look at the capital expenditure, the coding has geo-location. If you have a project in Obubra, any person who sees the code on the internet will know the location is Obubra. Likewise projects in other local governments. In the Federal Government budget, it is the states that are used as codes. It is also operating the 52-digit code.

“Every state has a code. In the states every local government has a code. Any project you do in that local government has a code and can easily be traced as projects are codified according to local government. Cross River State uses State Integrated Financial Management Information System rather than Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) the Federal Government and other states use.”

The Nigerian Army said on Sunday that the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province fighters were smuggling smoked fish into the country to sustain their criminal activities.

The army noted that its troops attached to the Operation Lafiya Dole arrested a syndicate of terrorists which specialised in smuggling “smoked fish from the Lake Chad region.”

According to the military, seven Boko Haram terrorists were also killed by an Improvised Explosive Device laid by them for the troops along the Jakana-Mainok Road in Borno State.

The army Operations’ Media Coordinator, Col. Aminu Iliyasu, in a release on Sunday, noted that four suspects in the terrorists’ fishing business were arrested and 16 sacks of smoked fish concealed in a room were recovered from them.

Iliyasu said, “As the artillery bombardment and ground assault by troops intensify, some marauding Boko Haram criminals met their waterloo as one of their vehicles, a Toyota Sam Sahara Model, stepped on an IED laid by them against troops at the Lamba’a Forest. The destruction consumed seven Boko Haram criminals while eight others suffered severe injuries.

“In another development, a syndicate that specialises in the smuggling of smoked fish from the Lake Chad region for sale in some parts of Nigeria has been arrested by the troops of Operation Lafiya Dole. Reliable information available revealed that Boko Haram criminals, ISWAP and their collaborators are using the fish business to finance and sustain their heinous activities.

“The proceeds from the sale are believed to be channelled into the procurement of foodstuffs, groceries, drugs, toiletries, vehicle spare parts and other items for the sustenance of their criminal activities.

“Troops of Sector 3 of the operation, while acting on reliable intelligence, raided the residence of some suspected illegal fish smugglers near the Water Board Internally Displaced Persons’ camp in the Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State. Four suspects were arrested and 16 sacks of smoked fish concealed in a room were recovered.

“In a similar operation, nine vehicles loaded with illegal smoked fish consignments were equally intercepted at Bukarti in the Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State en-route Hadejia in Jigawa State. Consequently, 18 suspects including the drivers, conductors, mechanics and agents were also apprehended.”

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, says the International Monetary Fund supports Nigeria’s closure of its land borders because it understands that the action is not punitive.

Addressing newsmen in Washington on Sunday, Ahmed explained that the measure was intended to restore Nigeria’s relationship with its neighbors, based on commitments made.

She said that President Muhammadu Buhari did not want to approve the closure because he was mindful of the adverse effect it would have on the economies of neighbors.

According to her, there were several engagements between Nigeria and the neighbouring countries toward securing compliance to the rules, “but things got worse”.

“Of course, there will be economic impact on the side of our neighbours due to the border closure, that is a consequence of it.

“In a manner of speaking, IMF supports the border closure that we have done because they understand that the closure was not meant to be punitive.

“It was meant for us to restore our relationship with our neighbours back to the commitments that we made.

“The commitment that we have among these countries is that goods can come through their ports to Nigeria.

“They are supposed to come in sealed containers escorted to Nigeria for the Nigeria Customs Service to inspect the goods and charge them.

“But that is not what is happening. They allow containers to be opened, and also allow goods to be smuggled beyond the formal borders through several illegal routes,’’ she fumed.

The minister reiterated that Nigeria would ensure that rules were obeyed now that it had committed itself to the African Continental Free Trade Area,“ otherwise local industries will suffer.”

She said that a lot of discussions were ongoing between Nigeria and the affected countries toward securing their re-commitment to the rules governing cross-border trade.

Lagos is the most indebted state in both foreign and domestic borrowing in the first half of 2019, with total public debt at N992.38 billion.

Business Insider SSA’s analysis of the Debt Management Office data shows that Lagos’ domestic borrowings dipped by 7.35% to N479.04 billion from N517 billion recorded June 30, 2018.

For the second time in a month, police raid a building where hundreds of boys were held in dehumanizing conditions.

Police in northern Nigeria have freed 67 people who had been found shackled at an Islamic boarding school, officials say.

The pupils, between the ages of seven and 40, told police they had been tortured and abused.

Last month, more than 300 male students were freed from a similar boarding school in neighbouring Kaduna state.

Islamic boarding schools, known as Almajiris, are common across the mostly-Muslim north of Nigeria.

In a statement released on Monday, police said the boys and men were chained and subjected to “inhuman and degrading treatments”. Some had been sexually abused.

“Beating, abusing and punishment, this is what they always did to us here. They make a cover story and say they were teaching us. They are not teaching us for the sake of God,” student Lawal Ahmed told the Reuters news agency.

Two teachers as well as the owner of the school, which is in Daura, the birthplace of President Muhammadu Buhari, have been arrested.

More than 300 pupils were enrolled but most had escaped before the police arrived, the BBC’s Ishaq Khalid says.

The captives had been rioting and many had got out with their shackles still on, a Katsina police spokesperson told the BBC.

The school operated for decades as a place for Koranic instruction and worked with some pupils who were deemed to have behavioural problems.

Lack of facilities

There have been numerous reports of abuse at Islamic boarding schools across northern Nigeria, with students sometimes forced to spend their days begging on the streets.

A lack of rehabilitation facilities in parts of the country force some parents to enrol their unruly children in informal Islamic schools – which are also meant to be correctional facilities – where they are subjected to abuse, our correspondent says.

President Buhari has previously condemned reports of abuse at similar institutions.

In September, when students were freed from the school in Kaduna, he urged religious and traditional leaders to work with the authorities to “expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities”.