A woman in labour was one of the people killed by Boko Haram fighters during the brazen attack on Baga, Borno State, according to Amnesty International.
The human rights group said an eyewitness to the assault on Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in North-East Nigeria, told them that the woman was shot by indiscriminate fire that also hit small children.
“Half of the baby boy (was) out and she died like that,” Amnesty quoted the anonymous witness as saying.
The human rights group also said that hundreds of people, if not more, might have been killed in the attack, which seemed to have targeted civilians helping the military in their fight against the terror group.
“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,” Amnesty quoted another witness as saying.
One man, who escaped from Baga after hiding for three days said he was “stepping on bodies” for five kilometres (three miles) as he fled through the bush.
Human Rights Watch said the exact death toll was unknown. In a statement published on Thursday, it quoted one local resident as saying: “No one stayed back to count the bodies. We were all running to get out of town ahead of Boko Haram fighters who have since taken over the area.”
Nigeria’s military, however, said 150 people died, dismissing as “sensational,” claims that 2,000 may have lost their lives.
0 comments:
Post a Comment