• Nigeria’s Boko Haram ‘in village massacre’

    Boko Haram at it again. Sheesh. Fundamentalism.

    BBC:

    Nigerian soldiers patrol in the north of Borno state close to a Islamist extremist group Boko Haram former camp, file image from 2013Northern Nigeria is under emergency rule, but attacks have intensified

    Suspected Islamist militants have raided a Nigerian village and murdered dozens, according to witnesses.

    The gunmen reportedly rounded up a group of men in Izge village and shot them, before going door-to-door and killing anyone they found.

    Officials said they suspected the Boko Haram group was behind the attack.

    Boko Haram, which claims to be fighting to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, is notorious for extreme violence and indiscriminate attacks.

    More than 30 people were killed in the town of Konduga earlier this week in an attack blamed on Boko Haram.

    Some witnesses estimated the number killed in Izge was as high as 90, while others said roughly 60 had died.

    “All the dead bodies of the victims are still lying in the streets,” resident Abubakar Usman told Reuters news agency.

    “We fled without burying them, fearing the terrorists were still lurking in the bushes.”

    Other witnesses described how the attackers had arrived on Sunday morning in trucks and motorcycles.

    They asked the men in the village to gather, and then they hacked and shot them to death.

    Numerous villages in the area around Borno state capital Maiduguri have been attacked in recent months, despite the state being under emergency rule.

    Frustrated with the army’s efforts to combat the rebellion, President Goodluck Jonathan replaced his top military brass on 16 January.

    If confirmed, the attack on Izge will be the biggest since those new appointments.

    Boko Haram has killed many hundreds of Christians and Muslims since it launched a campaign of mass violence in 2009.

    Category: IslamReligion and Society

    Tags:

    Article by: Jonathan MS Pearce