By Emeka Okonkwo

Abuja — FOUR refugees have been killed after an attack thought to be carried out by the Boko Haram terror group at a refugee centre northeast of Nigeria.

The attack in Rann town in the volatile Borno State is the third by the non-state armed groups since March last year.

“We are devastated to learn of this attack and the senseless loss of life,” said Richard Danziger, the regional director of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The organisation’s humanitarian hub was badly damaged during the attack.

Hubs are instrumental in enabling the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to refugees in the northeast of the country.

Rann hosts more than 76 000 people who fled a continuing conflict which has displaced over two million people in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States in the past decade.

In 2017, a Nigerian Air Force jet mistakenly bombed a refugee camp in Rann believing it was a Boko Haram encampment. The bombing left at least 115 people dead and 100 injured.

Nigeria is battling a decade-long terror campaign by the Boko Haram, which seeks to establish an Islamist state northeast of the West African country.

Some 20 000 people have been killed but it is believed the death toll is higher than 100 000 while more than two million others have been displaced.