Boko Haram Attacks Kill Hundreds in Northeastern Nigeria

Local Editor

Boko Haram militants disguised as Nigerian soldiers killed more than 200 civilians in three villages in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday, with the military failing to intervene  although it was warned that an attack was imminent, witnesses said on Thursday.

A lawmaker in Nigeria's lower parliament, Peter Biye, stated that the attackers, who posed as soldiers, told residents they had come to protect them from Boko Haram and asked them to assemble.
They then singled out men and boys and opened fire on them.

They were on all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles attacked neighboring Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara villages in Gwoza district, shooting residents to death and burning homes.

Biye stated that the area is still under the control of the militants, and residents cannot go back to bury the dead because of the danger involved.

Dead bodies litter the area around the attacked villages, and ground troops have yet to go to the area to push out the insurgents, he added.

"The death is unimaginable. We have lost between 400 and 500 people in the attacks in which men and male children were not spared. Even nursing mothers had their male infants snatched from their backs and shot dead before their eyes, "said the local leader.

The attacks forced surviving villagers to flee to Cameroon and into the Mandara Mountains on the border.

The insurgents destroyed mobile phone towers in the region, so news of attacks is usually slow to emerge and verification of death tolls difficult to obtain.

In case the death toll is confirmed, it will be the worst attack by Boko Haram in its five-year insurgency that has killed thousands, mostly in the northeast of the country.

On May 5, the group killed 315 people in the town of Gamboru Ngala on the border with Cameroon not far from Gwoza, where they burned a market, businesses and several homes.

Meanwhile, dozens of Boko Haram fighters stormed Madagali town early Thursday, burning a church and a local government administrative building after subduing military and police personnel, a local official said.

The Boko Haram group has also kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls on April 15.