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Hundreds of villagers from four villages in northeast Nigeria are feared dead in suspected Boko Haram attacks, in the latest increase in violence that is claiming the lives of an increasing number of civilians.
According to local sources, Tuesday’s death toll due to attacks in Gwozo district in the state of Borno could be as high as 500; however, the figures could not be independently verified. If confirmed, the attacks in the villages Attagara, Agapalwa, Aganjara and Goshe will be one of the deadliest attacks in Boko Haram’s five-year insurgency. Only a month ago, 300 people were killed by the Boko Haram in the nearby village of Gamboru Ngala.
Nigerian lawmaker Peter Biye, who represents the district in the lower house of the Nigerian Parliament, commented on the situation, saying, “The killings are massive but nobody can give a toll for now because nobody has been able to go to that place because the insurgents are still there. They have taken over the whole area. There are bodies littered over the whole area and people have fled”.
Boko Haram’s activity in northeast Nigeria has forced more than 800 people to flee their homes every day. Over 3,000 people have been killed in the past year by the Boko Haram, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) in Geneva said.
On Wednesday evening, 45 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants, dressed up as itinerant preachers, who had opened fire in the village Barderi near Borno state capital Maiduguri. On Thursday, an attack was reported in the town of Madagali, about 25 kilometers away from Gwoza. Gunmen fired at troops at a checkpoint before razing a Roman Catholic Church and torching a local government office, Maina Ularamu, chairman of the local government, said. No deaths were confirmed in the attack, he added, but according to a local source, two civilians were killed in the gunfight.