Amnesty International has released satellite images from the
January 2nd and 7th Boko Haram attack in Baga Borno state. Early
reports put the death toll from the attack at 2000 but that has been disputed by the Nigerian
military who put the death toll at 150.
According to a report carried out by AI's Nigeria researcher, Daniel Eyre,
about 3,700 homes in two villages, Baga and Doron Baga were destroyed by
the militants. The report claims that of all the Boko Haram attacks, the one
carried out in Baga last week is so far the deadliest. Continue...
“The Satellite images released by
Amnesty International on Wednesday provides
indisputable and shocking
evidence of the scale of last week’s attack on the towns of Baga and
Doron Baga by Boko Haram militants. Before and after images of two
neighbouring towns, Baga (160 kilometres from Maiduguri) and Doron Baga
(also known as Doro Gowon, 2.5 km from Baga), taken on 2 and 7 January
show the devastating effect of the attacks which left over 3,700
structures damaged or completely destroyed. Other nearby towns and
villages were also attacked over this period. These detailed images show
devastation
of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped
off the map in the space of four days. Of all Boko Haram assaults
analyzed by
Amnesty International, this is the largest and most destructive yet. It
represents a deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and
schools are now burnt out ruins. The analysis shows just two of the many
towns and villages that fell victim to a series of Boko Haram attacks
which began on 3 January 2015. In Baga, a densely populated town less
than two square kilometres in size, approximately 620 structures were
damaged or completely destroyed by fire. In Doron Baga over 3,100
structures were damaged or destroyed by fire affecting most of the four
square kilometre town. Many of the wooden fishing boats along
the shoreline, visible in the images taken on the 2 January, are no
longer present in the 7 January images tallying with eye witnesses’
testimony that desperate residents fled by boat across Lake Chad.
Thousands of people have fled the
violence across the border to Chad and to other parts of Nigeria
including Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. These people are adding
to the hundreds
of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees, who have
already stretched the capacity of host communities and government
authorities" the report said
The report included accounts of some villagers who
gave accounts about the attack. One man who was interviewed said he saw
a woman who was in labor attacked and killed with her unborn child
ripped from her stomach
"Half of the baby boy is out and she died like this"the man said
Another said “They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time
in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and
killing.”he said
Amnesty International called on the Nigerian
government to take all possible legal steps to restore security in the
north-east and ensure protections of civilians.
“Up until now, the isolation of the Baga combined with the fact that
Boko Haram remains in control of the area has meant that it has been
very difficult to verify what happened there. Residents have not been
able to return to bury the dead, let alone count their number. But
through these satellite images combined with graphic testimonies a
picture of what is likely to be Boko Haram’s deadliest attack ever is
becoming clearer. This week, Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information stated that the
number of people killed in Baga including Boko Haram fighters “has so
far not exceeded about 150. These images, together with the stories of
those who survived the attack, suggest that the final death toll could
be much higher than this figure.” the report says.........
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