KANO: Militants killed 15 farmers and children in a gun attack and mine explosion on Thursday in Nigeria`s northeast Borno state, the epicentre of a campaign led by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

The fighters opened fire on a group of farmers and children riding in an open van and a motorised rickshaw outside Gurnowa, a village near the garrison town of Monguno.

Separately, a woman farmer and her three children fleeing the area died when their wooden cart hit a landmine near the attack scene before they withdrew.

`Our men have evacuated 11 bodies to Monguno while another team has left to bring the woman and her three children,` said Babakura Kolo, an anti-ISWAP leader assisting the military in the region.

The 11 were returning to Monguno after working on their farms when they were attacked.

The insurgents made off with the van and the rickshaw of the slain farmers. `The woman and her three children had abandoned their farm after hearing gunshots and were heading back to Monguno when the cart they were pushing rolled over an explosive buried by the terrorists, killing them all,` said the anti-ISWAP leader.

Most of the 11 victims were shot in the head, including two females and two children.

Gurnowa, five kilometres from the military fortified town of Monguno, has been deserted for years following militant attacks, with its inhabitants forced to seek shelter in makeshift camps in Monguno. Monguno, 140 km north of the regional capital Maiduguri, houses tens of thousands of internally displaced people who fled their homes to escape the violence and live in sprawling camps under military protection.-AFP