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Three UN workers among 11 people killed in Boko Haram attack in Nigeria

Eight police officers were also killed after the attack by militants in the north-east of the country.

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The UN said it was shocked and saddened by the deaths (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Three workers for United Nations agencies were among 11 people killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants on a military base in north-eastern Nigeria.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said “a large number” of Boko Haram members used automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and gun trucks in the assault on the base in Rann, in Borno state, near the border with Cameroon.

At a UN briefing in Geneva, IOM spokesman Joel Millman said two members of staff, Ibrahim Lawan and Yawe Emmanuel, were among three humanitarian workers killed along with eight members of police and the military.

The UN’s humanitarian aid co-ordinating agency, OCHA, said a third aid worker killed was a medical doctor consulting for Unicef.

IOM director of operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker said the agency was “outraged and saddened” by the killings.

The two IOM workers were contractors working in a camp for 55,000 internally displaced people who have fled conflict in the region.

UN officials said the humanitarian crisis in north-eastern Nigeria is one of the worst in the world, with more than 7.5 million people in need of assistance.

Some 3,000 aid workers with the world body, its agencies and NGOs are providing aid to some 6.1 million people in the region.

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