Boko Haram gunmen stormed a crowded market in Nigeria’s restive northeastern state of Borno, killing several people and carting away food, witnesses said Saturday. But their ‘victory’ paled to nothing as the military routed the sect killing the impostor of Ibrahim Shekau, the leader of the terror group whom military authorities had killed months ago.

Dressed in military and police uniforms, dozens of insurgents attacked the town of Mainok, 56 kilometres outside Maiduguri, the state capital, firing a rocket-propelled grenade and spraying the market with bullets.

The attackers also looted food which they loaded onto trucks abandoned by fleeing traders, witnesses said.

“They struck around 1:30pm during peak hours by first firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the market before opening fire on traders”, Salman Lawan, a trader who witnessed the carnage told AFP.

“They killed several people in the attack but it is difficult to give a precise figure,” said Lawan who fled to Maiduguri following the attack.

This is even as officials from the Nigerian government and representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, including a senior Keyan government official, have allegedly had talks with senior members of the Islamic terror organization Boko Haram on Sunday, in a bid to re-open talk with the group aimed at swapping prisoners for more than 200 school girls kidnapped in April.

According to an intelligence source, government officials and representatives from the Red Cross met with two senior members from Boko Haram four times in August in the capital city of Abuja.

The Defense Information Director (DID) Major General Chris Olukolade, in a telephone chat, confirmed the market attack, but declined to comment on the alleged fresh talk.

Although a deal has not been finalized, the deal would include releasing 30 Boko Haram commanders currently held by the Nigerian government, according to the source.

In April, the terror group abducted nearly 300 girls from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens of the girls escaped, but Boko Haram is still holding more than 200 captive.

Friday, a young Nigerian woman who escaped Boko Haram allegedly recalled her story for an audience of policymakers in Washington, DC.

Another trader Modu Kachalla, who gave a similar account, said the insurgents were looking for cash and food.

“They robbed traders of cash and loaded food into trucks they seized at the market before fleeing into the bush,” he said.

“The market was full…when the Boko Haram gunmen attacked which explained the high casualties,” he said.

“The attackers killed many people at the market but it is difficult to give a toll because everybody fled to save their lives,” said Ibrahim Kolo, another witness.

Boko Haram, which has seized swathes of territory in Borno and in neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa states, has been running short of food in the areas they have taken, according to residents.