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Human rights group Amnesty International has released satellite images showing what it says is “indisputable and shocking evidence” of the scale of last week’s attack on two Nigerian towns by Boko Haram fighters.
Before and after images of two neighbouring towns, Baga and Doro Gowon in northern Nigeria taken on January 2 and 7, 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, the human rights group said yesterday.
“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,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.
Amnesty said interviews with witnesses as well as local government officials and human rights activists suggest hundreds of civilians were shot. Last week, the human rights group noted reports of as many as 2,000 dead.
The Nigerian military has cited a figure of 150 dead, including slain fighters.
“Of all Boko Haram assaults analysed 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,” he added.
The analysis shows just two of the many towns and villages that fell victim to a series of Boko Haram attacks which began on January 3.
A man in his 50s told Amnesty what happened in Baga during the attack: “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 hid in the bush and was later discovered by Boko Haram fighters, who detained him in Doron Baga for four days.
Medical charity, Doctors Without Borders said on Tuesday that its team in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, was providing assistance to 5,000 survivors of the attack.
More than 3,700 structures were damaged or completely destroyed – 620 in Baga and more than 3,100 in Doron Baga, Amnesty said but added that the number could be higher.
Those who fled describe seeing many more corpses in the bush. “I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked,” one woman told Amnesty.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram fighters killed a woman as she was in labour during what is feared could be the deadliest attack in the militants’ six-year insurgency, Amnesty International claimed yesterday.
The human rights group said one witness to the assault on Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad in north-east Nigeria, told them the woman was shot by indiscriminate fire that also cut down small children.
“Half of the baby boy was out and she died like this,” the unnamed witness was quoted as saying.
Amnesty said this week that hundreds of people, if not more, may have been killed in the attack, which began on January 3 and is thought to have targeted civilian vigilantes helping the military.
Another woman added: “I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked.”
The testimony chimes with claims from local officials that huge numbers were killed and that of witnesses spoken to by AFP, who described seeing decomposing bodies littering the streets.
One man who escaped from Baga after hiding for three days said he was “stepping on bodies” for 5km as he fled through the bush.
Nigeria’s military, which often downplays death tolls, said this week that 150 people died, dismissing as “sensational” claims that 2,000 may have lost their lives.
The UN refugee agency has said that more than 11,300 Nigerian refugees have fled into neighbouring Chad.
Eyre said the eye-witnesses and images reinforced the view that the attack was Boko Haram’s “largest and most destructive” in its fight to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
The statement added: “The deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of their property by Boko Haram are war crimes and crimes against humanity and must be duly investigated.”
At least 300 women were said to have been rounded up and detained at a school, witnesses told Amnesty, adding that older women, mothers and children were released after four days but younger women kept.
The Baga attack came before presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria next month and an upsurge in violence apparently designed to undermine the legitimacy of the vote. AFP/Al Jazeera
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