At least 10 farmers were killed in an attack carried out by Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria, reports said. Nine others were abducted

Members of the terrorist organisation attacked workers in fields in the Mafa local government area of Borno state late on Sunday, the Punch newspaper reported.

The Islamist group has been killing and abducting farmers in Borno state, a hotbed for militancy that has been the epicentre of a 14-year war on insurgency in Nigeria.

Other armed gangs, often referred to locally as bandits, have also wreaked havoc across northwest Nigeria in recent years, kidnapping thousands of people, killing hundreds and making it unsafe to travel by road or to farm in some areas.

At least 40,000 people have been killed and more than two million others displaced since the Boko Haram group launched a rebellion in 2009.

The insurgency has spread into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, prompting a regional military force to be set up to fight the militants.