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Adamawa borders Borno state, which has in previous years been a bastion of Boko Haram activity. Madagali itself was occupied by Boko Haram until the Nigerian army recaptured it last year.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attack saying it was a desperate act from a terrorist group that was on the verge of defeat.
But in recent years, Boko Haram has carried out cross-border incursions in neighboring Cameroon, Mali, and Niger with deadly effect.
Boko Haram, which once controlled large swathes of northeastern Nigeria, has come under repeated attacks from the Nigerian, Chadian and Cameroonian armies in recent months.
Although African nations have launched a combined military effort, sanctioned by the African Union and supported in part by Washington, to destroy the militant group, and the extremist group has lost some territory, it has not lost its capability to launch suicide and car bomb attacks or kidnap women and children for leverage.
The conflict has killed 20,000 and displaced some 2.6 million people in northeastern Nigeria.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies