The Amnesty International has described the January 3
attack on Baga community in Borno State as the deadliest
in the history of Boko Haram’s over five-year reign of terror
in the North-East of Nigeria, saying about 2,000 people may
have been killed in the incident.
AI, in a statement on Friday, said it had reports of the town
being razed to the ground, leaving around 2,000 people
dead in the process.
A researcher for Amnesty International in Nigeria, Daniel
Eyre, said, “The attack on Baga and surrounding towns
looks as if it could be Boko Haram’s deadliest act in a
catalogue of increasingly heinous attacks carried out by the
group.
“If reports that the town was largely razed to the ground
and that hundreds or even as many as two thousand
civilians were killed are true, this marks a disturbing and
bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught
against the civilian population.”
“We are currently working to find out more details of what
happened during the attack on Baga and the surrounding
area. This attack reiterates the urgent need for Boko Haram
to stop the senseless killing of civilians and for the Nigerian
government to take measures to protect a population who
live in constant fear of such attacks,” Eyre added.
Since 2009 when the sect began its deadly campaign,
targeting civilians and military personnel through raids and
bomb attacks, scores of lives have been lost. According to
United States-based Council on Foreign Relations, more
than 10,000 were killed by the group last year alone, many
of them children and old people.
Meanwhile, shooting and heavy artillery fire were heard on
the outskirts of Damaturu on Friday, Reuters reported. No
further details were given as of the time of filing this report.
It will be recalled that suspected Boko Haram militants
raided Damaturu, Yobe State, 130km from Maiduguri, Borno
State in early December last year.
The United Nations refugee agency on Friday reported that
some 7,300 Nigerian refugees had arrived in western Chad
in the past 10 days, fleeing attacks by insurgents on Baga
town and surrounding villages in North-East Nigeria.
The UNHCR spokesperson, Adrian Edwards, said UNHCR
teams in Chad were at the border and seeking more
information on the new arrivals and their needs.
The attack this week on Baga left hundreds of people dead,
according to media reports, and forced most of its surviving
inhabitants to flee.
The newly arrived refugees in Chad are staying with local
communities in villages around 450 kilometres north-west
of the capital, N’Djamena. The Chadian government has
requested the assistance of aid agencies to help the
refugees. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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