At least 44 were killed in a militant attack at Konduga, 22 miles (35 km) away from Maiduguri, Nigeria. It was suspected that militants came in army fatigues to gun down people who came to pray at one mosque in the north-eastern part of Nigeria.

The militants came while the dawn prayers were going on Sunday morning. It took some time for the news to spread. Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group, was suspected to have been responsible for the attack. The group was previously responsible for killing thousands of people in the northern part of the country in the last 4 years.

As BBC quotes Daily Post (Nigeria), 26 more were hospitalized for injuries in Maiduguri. Twelve more were killed near Maiduguri as well. These civilians were killed in Ngom village.

Goodluck Jonathon, the President of Nigeria, already declared an emergency in three states in the north-eastern part of the country last May. The national troops were supposed to get offensive against Boko Haram. The Islamist militant group wished to overthrow Jonathon and his government to establish Islamist rule in that part of the country.

The militants tended to attack churches pretty often. On the other hand, the Islamist group was not hesitant in attacking even mosques. Abubakar Sheka, the leader of the group, claimed responsibility for all the recent attacks in a video. The video showed him claiming the responsibility for the attacks on the military and the police.

On the contrary, it was unclear and rather confusing to know what prompted the Islamist militant group to kill religious Muslims who had come to the mosque for their Fajr (dawn) prayer. However, this was not the first time the Islamist group attacked a mosque. The group always reacted violently to anyone who criticizes their militant activities, even if it comes from the clerics of a mosque.

The Boko Haram allegedly killed over 1,700 people since 2010 (Source: AP)