Abuja, March 6 (IANS): At least 47 villagers were killed in the latest attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, one of the three most-hit states by the terror group, a local security source said.

Ahmed Haruna, a member of the civilian joint task force responsible for the security of lives and property in Damboa area of Borno said on Thursday, suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked Njaba village, about 87 km south of Maiduguri, the state capital, on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The incident was not immediately reported to local officials until Thursday, due to telecommunication challenge in the state, Haruna said.

According to him, a woman who apparently was a survivor of the attack reported the incident in Biu, some 100 km from the Njaba village where the attack took place.

The Boko Haram fighters arrived Njaba village at about 5.30 a.m. and started shooting people going to the community mosque, the local security guard said in his account of the incident, adding the heavy shooting by the attackers caused confusion and many people fled into a nearby bush.

"Actually, women were not the target but many of the people killed were young boys and elderly men because the very agile youths had since fled the village due to frequent attacks around the area," the official said.

"Those who fled came back in the afternoon and found corpses everywhere, more than 47 corpses," he said.

On February 20, at least 21 people were killed as suspected Boko Haram fighters carried out armed attacks on three villages in the same Borno State.

Boko Haram has so far killed more than 13,000 people and displaced over one million others in various armed attacks in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.