Jihadists from the Islamic State West Africa Province attacked soldiers and workers on a bridge under reconstruction in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. The death toll is "several dozen," according to the head of an anti-jihadist self-defense group.

Jihadists from ISWAP, the Islamic State's branch in West Africa, killed dozens of people, including soldiers, overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in Borno State (northeast Nigeria), local and medical sources said.

"The death toll has risen to several dozen […] and many soldiers are missing," Ibrahim Liman, a member of an anti-jihadist self-defense group, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Twenty bodies transported to the hospital

Twenty bodies, including those of five soldiers, 15 construction workers and local hunters, were transported to Biu General Hospital, located 45 km from Sabon Gari, where the attack took place, according to Ibrahim Liman.

Bukar Yamta Ali, secretary of a group of hunters in Yamarkumi, a locality located outside the local administrative area of Biu, along with two nurses from the hospital in Biu, confirmed that they had recovered bodies and wounded evacuated from Sabon Gari.

The victims were working on the Wajiroko bridge, linking the towns of Biu and Damboa, which was destroyed last year by jihadists and is being rebuilt.

The workers returned to the Sabon Gari base, located five kilometers away, to spend the night.

Nine soldiers killed two days earlier

This ambush came two days after another ISWAP attack, which killed nine Nigerian soldiers and left about ten missing near the town of Damask in Borno State, close to the border with Niger.

ISWAP, which emerged from a split within Boko Haram in 2016, focuses its attacks on security forces, without sparing civilians in this region.