Suspected insurgents in Nigeria killed 14 people in a rampage that began in a nightclub and proceeded into the surrounding neighbourhood in northeastern Yobe state, residents said on Friday, two months after another attack in the state killed 40 people.

The Boko Haram and splinter Islamic West Africa Province have waged an insurgency in Nigeria's northeast for more than one decade and continue to carry out sporadic attacks against civilians and the military.

Ali Musa, a resident from the Kwari community in Yobe told Reuters by phone that the gunmen arrived around 1:00am (0000 GMT) at a nightclub and started to shoot sporadically, killing seven people there.

The armed men then went on to burn several houses and vehicles, killing five more people. Another two people were killed following an explosion, said another resident Joseph Inuwa.

Inuwa said one of the people killed was the local pastor of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, who was shot dead while he tried to escape.

“As I'm speaking to you many other people are hospitalised at Gaidam Specialist Hospital,” Inuwa said.

Yobe police spokesperson Dungus Abdulkarim did not respond to calls and messages to his phone.

President Bola Tinubu, preoccupied with the economy, has yet to disclose how he would tackle insurgency in the north and widespread insecurity in other parts of Nigeria.

Reuters