Brutal weekend attacks on
three villages by Boko Haram Islamists in the restive northeast of Nigeria have
left 30 dead and 20 others wounded, a vigilante told AFP.
“Most of the victims were slaughtered
and most of the wounded (had suffered) machete cuts,” Mustapha Karimbe, a
civilian helping the Nigerian military fight Boko Haram, said of Saturday’s
attacks in the villages of Warwara, Mangari and Bura-Shika in Borno state.
News of the attacks has been slow to
emerge because telecom masts in the area have been destroyed in previous Boko
Haram raids, hindering communication.
The Islamists invaded the villages,
hacking and slaughtering their victims before setting the villages on fire.
The villages are near
Buratai, the hometown of Nigeria’s highest military chief Tukur Yusuf Buratai.
Warwara, where 20 people were killed, was the worst affected,
said Musa Suleiman, another vigilante.
The attackers killed six people in Bura-Shika and another four
in Mangari, he said.
The latest deaths take the number of people killed in Nigeria
since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May to more than 1,530,
according to an AFP tally.
Residents of the villages fled to Biu, 30 kilometres (19 miles)
away.
Buratai and nearby settlements have recently been the targets of
deadly raids by Boko Haram, which have left scores dead and entire villages
looted and burnt down.
Residents believe the attacks are in response to the pressure
that the army chief is exerting on Boko Haram in counter-insurgency military
operations.
On Thursday Boko Haram insurgents killed 14 people —
decapitating some of them — when they raided Kamuya village, the hometown of
the army chief’s mother, and burnt it down.
Nigeria’s government has vowed to end
the Boko Haram insurgency by this month but the deadline looks likely to be
missed as attacks persist.
The Islamists’ grip on the region has
suffered as a result of offensives launched by local armies, leading to raids
like Saturday’s becoming rarer.
There has, however, been a spike in
suicide attacks in Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
At least 17,000 people have been killed since the conflict began
in 2009.
A new 8,700-strong Multi-national Joint Task Force (MNJTF)
comprising troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin was supposed to
have been deployed in late July.
But the African Union-backed force
has yet to start operations, with no reason given for the
But
the African Union-backed force has yet to start operations, with no reason given
for the lengthening delay and questions over whether the countries have the
resources to commit
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