MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — It was the kind of onslaught many feared.
This city of more than two million, the most important in northern Nigeria, has endured many fierce assaults from Boko Haram militants during the course of their uprising, which began here nearly six years ago.
The militants have bombed markets and schools, blasted their way into prisons, attacked the military air base and left parts of the city littered with corpses. But on Sunday, in perhaps their most audacious assault yet, Boko Haram militants appeared to attempt an invasion of Maiduguri, with hundreds attacking from two directions.
The Nigerian military, taken by surprise, had to call in warplanes to bomb the militants and push them back to the surrounding areas they have long controlled.
“It was serious fighting here,” said Ali Mohammed, a road construction worker, gesturing across the highway toward the burned shops in the Djimtilo suburb.
“Not small,” he said, adding that he had observed “400 Boko Haram” fighters before fleeing.
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But this was not simply a day of defeat for Boko Haram: The group captured an important military installation in Monguno, a town just north of Maiduguri, chasing away 1,400 soldiers and raising fears that it could regroup for a fresh assault on the city.
Even after the group’s defeat at the edge of Maiduguri, soldiers and insurgents exchanged gunfire Sunday evening around the well-guarded airport — a tempting strategic target whose loss would be a disaster for the government.
The residents here do not trust government security forces to protect them and have taken up arms themselves, banding together as the “Civilian J.T.F.,” or “Joint Task Force.” They have had some success in rooting out the Islamist militants, though many residents believe that the city remains infiltrated by Boko Haram. Groups of Civilian J.T.F. were at the ready all over town on Monday, armed as usual with sticks and cutlasses.
Life seemed placid in the heat. But citizens here know how suddenly that can change.
“It’s normal today, but we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Gerba Nassiru, 25, a member of Civilian J.T.F., said while buying sweets at the edge of the colonial district.
A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 2015, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: A Nigerian City, Long Under Siege, Survives an Audacious Militant Assault. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
