2,000 suspected dead in Nigeria
Hundreds of bodies – “too many to count” – lie in the bushes in Baga, Nigeria after an Islamic extremist attack at the hands of Boko Haram – an attack noted by Amnesty International (AI) to be the “deadliest massacre” in the terrorist organization’s history.
“The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous,” said Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for a defence group that fights the terrorist group. “No one can attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones, who may have died by now.”
Insurgents seized a key military base on Jan. 3 around Baga, which borders Chad. District head Baba Abba Hassan has declared that most of the victims are children, women, and elderly people who could not run when the insurgents drove into town, firing grenades and assault rifles at residents.
AI estimates that the town was razed, and as many as 2,000 civilians were killed. If this is correct, Nigeria researcher for AI Daniel Eyre notes, “this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught.”
Previously, the deadliest attack from the terrorist group passed in March of 2014, when soldiers gunned down unarmed detainees in Maiduguri, killing an estimated 600 people.
The latest attacks come a mere five weeks from the presidential elections, likely to trigger further violence. The current government has made no official statement regarding the massacres, although President Goodluck Jonathan briefly touched on security issues in his address to launch his re-election bid.
To date, almost two million people have been displaced by the violence at the hands of Boko Haram. These voices will almost certainly be silenced in the upcoming election, as they will be unable to vote in the polls due to current restrictions under Nigeria’s electoral laws.
– Compiled by Alyssa Ottema