Scores Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Baga Again
by INUSA NDAHI WITH AGENCY REPORT
Nigerian Mirror
Jan 9, 2015
•Sect leader threatens Cameroun in YouTube video
Boko Haram terrorists have launched another attack on Baga town, Borno State, killing unspecified number of people.
The insurgents were alleged to have burnt down almost the entire town during the attack on Wednesday.
The sect had ealier overrun a military base and sacked the town on Saturday, during which many residents were also killed.
Bodies of the victims of the latest attack are said to be lying on the streets, amid fears that some 2,000 people may have been killed in the raids.
On Monday, Senator Maina Maaji Lawan said the sect controlled 70 per cent of Borno State, which is worst-affected by the insurgency.
A senior government official in the area, Musa Alhaji Bukar said that fleeing residents told him that the town, which had a population of about 10,000, was now “virtually non-existent.”
“It has been burnt down,” he said.
Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and corpses littered the town’s streets, he added.
Boko Haram was effectively in control of Baga and 16 neighbouring towns, Mr. Bukar said.
Government troops abandoned the military base in Baga on Saturday, when the militants launched an assault.
The town hosts the Multi-National Joint Task Force, MNJTF, made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger, although it was learnt that there were only Nigerian soldiers there at the time of the attack.
Thousands have fled Baga – many to Maiduguri, the state capital, and others to Chad.
A large number reportedly drown as they crossed Lake Chad following Saturday’s raid.
But the District Head of Baga, Alhaji Baba Abba Hassan debunked a report that another attack was launched on the town. He described the report as outrageous.
He said: “Although hundreds of people were killed during Saturday’s attack, there was no recorded second attack on the ghost town.”
Hassan told newsmen on phone that the corpses of those killed on Saturday still littered the streets and the bushes as there was no way to bury them.
The traditional ruler said most of those killed were women and children as the insurgents pursued them into the bushes before unleashing terror on them.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened Cameroun in a video message on YouTube, warning that the same fate would befall the country as Nigeria.
The video, which was posted on January 5, is directly addressed to Cameroun’s President, Paul Biya after repeated fighting between militants and troops in the country’s far north.
“Oh Paul Biya, if you don’t stop this your evil plot, you will taste what has befallen Nigeria… Your troops cannot do anything to us,” Shekau said in Arabic.
It is the first time Shekau has directly addressed Cameroun and is also the first admission that Boko Haram has been actively operating in the country.
Boko Haram fighters had in the past launched attacks on northeastern Nigeria from bases in Cameroun but recent months have seen an increase in strikes within the country.
Cameroun’s far north has come increasingly into the group’s firing line and on December 28, Yaounde deployed fighter jets against the sect for the first time.
Biya personally ordered the air strike after the insurgents crossed the border and seized a military camp, the government said on December 29.
The aerial bombardment, hailed as a new phase in the counterinsurgency, forced the Islamists to flee, it added.
President Biya has made a series of strong statements against Boko Haram and in October last year vowed to go after the group “until it’s totally wiped out.”
In May last year, he said that a Paris meeting of Nigeria’s neighbours was designed to “declare war on Boko Haram.”
But a key agreement at the summit to set up a regional force has yet to be implemented, with Cameroun increasingly vocal in its criticisms about the lack of a coordinated response to the sect.
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| Damage done by Boko Haram attack during Dec. 2014. |
Nigerian Mirror
Jan 9, 2015
•Sect leader threatens Cameroun in YouTube video
Boko Haram terrorists have launched another attack on Baga town, Borno State, killing unspecified number of people.
The insurgents were alleged to have burnt down almost the entire town during the attack on Wednesday.
The sect had ealier overrun a military base and sacked the town on Saturday, during which many residents were also killed.
Bodies of the victims of the latest attack are said to be lying on the streets, amid fears that some 2,000 people may have been killed in the raids.
On Monday, Senator Maina Maaji Lawan said the sect controlled 70 per cent of Borno State, which is worst-affected by the insurgency.
A senior government official in the area, Musa Alhaji Bukar said that fleeing residents told him that the town, which had a population of about 10,000, was now “virtually non-existent.”
“It has been burnt down,” he said.
Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and corpses littered the town’s streets, he added.
Boko Haram was effectively in control of Baga and 16 neighbouring towns, Mr. Bukar said.
Government troops abandoned the military base in Baga on Saturday, when the militants launched an assault.
The town hosts the Multi-National Joint Task Force, MNJTF, made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger, although it was learnt that there were only Nigerian soldiers there at the time of the attack.
Thousands have fled Baga – many to Maiduguri, the state capital, and others to Chad.
A large number reportedly drown as they crossed Lake Chad following Saturday’s raid.
But the District Head of Baga, Alhaji Baba Abba Hassan debunked a report that another attack was launched on the town. He described the report as outrageous.
He said: “Although hundreds of people were killed during Saturday’s attack, there was no recorded second attack on the ghost town.”
Hassan told newsmen on phone that the corpses of those killed on Saturday still littered the streets and the bushes as there was no way to bury them.
The traditional ruler said most of those killed were women and children as the insurgents pursued them into the bushes before unleashing terror on them.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened Cameroun in a video message on YouTube, warning that the same fate would befall the country as Nigeria.
The video, which was posted on January 5, is directly addressed to Cameroun’s President, Paul Biya after repeated fighting between militants and troops in the country’s far north.
“Oh Paul Biya, if you don’t stop this your evil plot, you will taste what has befallen Nigeria… Your troops cannot do anything to us,” Shekau said in Arabic.
It is the first time Shekau has directly addressed Cameroun and is also the first admission that Boko Haram has been actively operating in the country.
Boko Haram fighters had in the past launched attacks on northeastern Nigeria from bases in Cameroun but recent months have seen an increase in strikes within the country.
Cameroun’s far north has come increasingly into the group’s firing line and on December 28, Yaounde deployed fighter jets against the sect for the first time.
Biya personally ordered the air strike after the insurgents crossed the border and seized a military camp, the government said on December 29.
The aerial bombardment, hailed as a new phase in the counterinsurgency, forced the Islamists to flee, it added.
President Biya has made a series of strong statements against Boko Haram and in October last year vowed to go after the group “until it’s totally wiped out.”
In May last year, he said that a Paris meeting of Nigeria’s neighbours was designed to “declare war on Boko Haram.”
But a key agreement at the summit to set up a regional force has yet to be implemented, with Cameroun increasingly vocal in its criticisms about the lack of a coordinated response to the sect.
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