MAIDUGURI—No fewer than 185 persons, including women and children,
have been killed and more than 2000 houses destroyed in an intense
fighting between the military and suspected members of Boko Haram sect
in Baga, a fishing community in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno
State.
Soldiers were said to have bombarded the remote town of Baga near the
Nigerian border with Chad for hours last Friday evening exchanging
rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine-gun fire with insurgents in
the neighbourhoods filled with civilians.
The fighting saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades as soldiers sprayed machine-gun fire into the neighbourhoods.
The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending
people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community on
Lake Chad. By Sunday, when government officials finally felt safe enough
to see the destruction, homes, businesses and vehicles were burnt
throughout the area.
A local government official, Mallam Lawan Kole told Governor Kashim
Shettima who inspected the affected area that at least 185 bodies had
been found and buried on Sunday afternoon.
The Commander of the Multinational Forces, Brigadier General Austin
Edokpaye, who was also on the visit did not dispute the casualty
figures.
Edokpaye said: “We received an intelligence report that some
suspected Boko Haram members usually pray and hide arms at a particular
mosque in the town and after soldiers had surrounded the mosque, the
extremists used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to
attack the soldiers. They reportedly used civilians as human shields
during the fight. We lost an officer during the attack on our men.
“When we reinforced and returned to the scene, the terrorists came
out with heavy firepower including RPGs which usually has a
conflagration effect.” Edokpaye said.
General Austin Edokpaye, however, revealed that the conflagration
that consumed the town and the resultant deaths should be blamed on the
Boko Haram terrorists who opened fire on soldiers and were using
civilians as human shield. He also denied allegations by the residents
that the shootout was unprovoked.
A resident of Baga town whose name was given as Mallam Bana told the
visiting Governor Shettima that the incident started at about 8pm on
Friday night.
“The soldiers were mindless that night in their approach; they
killed (our people) and burnt our houses, chased everyone into the bush
including women and children. So far, we have buried 185 corpses, some
were burnt beyond recognition; others are hospitalised with various
degrees of burns,” Mallam Bana said.
According to a grocer, Bashir Isa, “everyone has been in the bush
since Friday night. We started returning to town because the governor
came to town today. To get food to eat in the town now is a problem
because even the markets are burnt. We are still picking corpses of
women and children in the bush and creeks.”
By Sunday afternoon, the burnt bodies of cattle and goats still filled the streets while bullet holes marred burnt buildings.
Jonathan orders probe
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a full scale probe
into the incident at Baga in Borno State and assured Nigerians and the
global community that Nigeria ‘’places the highest possible value on the
lives of all citizens of the country and that his administration will
continue to do everything possible to avoid the killing or injuring of
innocent bystanders in security operations against terrorists and
insurgents.”
A statement by Dr. Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity said in part: “Rules of engagement for the military
and security agencies are already in place for this purpose and the
investigation ordered by President Jonathan into the incident in Baga is
to amongst other things, determine whether or not these rules were
fully complied with.
The President has also ordered the National Emergency Management
Authority (NEMA) and Federal health agencies to liaise with the Borno
State Government and take urgent steps to provide immediate relief and
medical support for all who suffered losses and injury in the fighting
at Baga.”
Our ordeal: French ex-hostages released by Boko Haram
Meanwhile, members of the French family held hostage for two months
by the Boko Haram sect, spoke about their ordeal on French national
television over the weekend. They said the four children helped them get
through the tough times.
Despite their kidnapping, the family said it would be happy to return to Cameroon.
“It’s a superb country,” said Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, head of the
family. “We were there for two years. We have friends there and
Cameroonian brothers.”
The French family kidnapped in Cameroon by suspected Boko Haram
Islamist militants were released last Thursday, without a ransom paid,
French president François Hollande said. The group had released videos
of the family, threatening to kill them if authorities in Nigeria and
Cameroon did not release Muslim militants held there.
However, Albane Moulin-Fournier, in a prime-time interview Saturday
night, said that there had been some “very hard moments, physically,”
during their captivity.
Albane was held in a different location from her husband, Tanguy, who
said they were put in extreme heat with little access to water.
Tanguy’s brother Cyril said a routine of daily activities for the
children helped the family keep their sanity.
“There were activities. We folded up the sheets in the morning. We
went to prepare breakfast,” said Cyril. “It was important to keep up a
daily routine.”
No comments:
Post a Comment