At least 15 persons have died after Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum’s convoy was ambushed on Friday.

The governor’s convoy was said to have been attacked between Monguno and Baga areas of the state.

A security source said the attack left mainly security personnel comprising eight policemen, three soldiers and four Civilian Joint Task Force operatives dead.

The insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades as the convoy was passing through a village close to the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a military coalition of troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

“The governor escaped unhurt but 15 security men on the convoy were killed in a fierce battle with the terrorists”, one source said.

Zulum was on an assessment tour of Baga in preparation for the return of thousands of residents displaced from the town by the jihadists in 2014, the sources said.

The governor flew on a helicopter into the garrison town of Monguno, 60 kilometres (40 miles) away, and headed to Baga in a convoy under tight security, one of the sources said.

In July Zulum’s convoy came under gun attack from terrorists outside Baga, forcing him to cancel his trip to the town.

Last week the group killed a Nigerian army commander along with three soldiers in an ambush near the town of Damboa.

Friday’s incident is the second attack on the governor’s convoy in recent times around Baga.