Monday, March 3, 2014

Nigeria: Islamists continue their killing ways - 100 killed



From Homeland Security NewsWire:

Islamists kill nearly 100 in weekend attacks in Nigeria

3 March 2014 

At least ninety people have been killed in three weekend attacks over the weekend by Islamist group Boko Haram. The attacks took place in northeast Nigeria, the area where the group attacks have killed thousands of people since 2009. This past weekend’s attacks cap three weeks in which the Islamist militants killed more than 400 people. Since last May, the Nigerian government has placed three states in the region — Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe — under a state of emergency in an effort to defeat the Islamic insurgency, but to little effect. The Nigerian military campaign has been criticized by military experts, who say the military has adopted an approach which is too passive to be effective against nimble insurgents. The quality of the troops and their commanders is low, resulting in guard being left unstaffed, slow response – at times several hours — to reports of attacks and calls for help, and soldiers abandoning their posts and running away in the face of the attacks.

 [...]

 

The Guardian reports that on Saturday, two explosions in a crowded district of Maiduguri left at least fifty dead, while another thirty-nine were killed in the nearby village of Mainok by Boko Haram gunmen.

A Red Cross volunteer said he had “succeeded in evacuating fifty-one dead bodies” after working all night. “Children are most affected,” he said, adding that nearly sixty people were injured.

Hassan Ali, a leader of a vigilante group in Gomari, told the Guardian that many people remained buried under rubble.

He said many food sellers and children hawking in front of a cinema hall in the area were killed while more than twenty houses and shops were destroyed....

Much more here.

 

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