Boko Haram kills 68, including children, in northeast Nigeria: Witnesses include two vigilantes

Boko Haram kills 68, including children, in northeast Nigeria: Witnesses include two vigilantes
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and ASSIST News Service
NJABA, NIGERIA (ANS – March 5, 2015) -- Boko Haram gunmen killed 68 people, including many children, in a massacre in the northeast Nigeria village of Njaba, two witnesses and two vigilantes told Agence France-Presse (AFP), today Thursday, March 5, 2015.
Heavily armed militants stormed the village in Borno state on Tuesday “from all directions,” said Falmata Bisika, 62, who escaped to the state capital Maiduguri where she spoke to reporters.
“The terrorists were armed to the teeth,” she said, recounting the insurgents’ rampage through Njaba, which saw them fire on fleeing residents, including “teenagers and the elderly.”
“It is very unlikely [that] I will ever go back,” she said. “Four of my grandchildren have been killed.”
Mimuni Haruna, 42, said he hid in a silo at the back of his house during the prolonged attack before running to Maiduguri, roughly 31 miles north of Njaba.
“I participated in the counting of dead bodies,” Haruna said. “Sixty-eight people were killed. Most of the houses in our village have been destroyed.”
Vigilante leader Ali Mulai said the attack began at about 5:00 am (0400 GMT).
“The victims included boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 19 and other older residents who were either shot dead or slaughtered,” he said.
According to AFP, another vigilante whose is from Njaba confirmed the attack and said his father was among those killed.
Requesting anonymity, he said he believed the assault was launched from Gwoza, where Boko Haram is believed to be amassing fighters. Gwoza is also the Borno town where Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau first proclaimed the existence of a caliphate inside Nigeria.
Boko Haram
Boko Haram (“Western education is forbidden,”) officially called Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad, is an Islamist terrorist movement based in northeast Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau and estimates of membership vary between a few hundred and 10,000. The group has been linked to al-Qaeda and in 2014 swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and adopted its emblem and terminologies.
Boko Haram is said to have killed more than 5,000 civilians between July 2009 and June 2014, including at least 2,000 in the first half of 2014, in attacks occurring mainly in northeast, north-central and central Nigeria, and shows no signs of slowing down with their slaughter.
According to Wikipedia, “Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest. Since 2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500 men, women and children, including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibokin in April 2014.”
It added, “650,000 people had fled the conflict zone by August 2014, an increase of 200,000 since May; by the end of the year 1.5 million had fled.”
Note from Dan Wooding. I was born in northern Nigeria in December of 1940, the son of British missionary parents (both from Liverpool), and I am heartbroken with this ongoing cycle of appalling violence in the land of my birth. Please continue to pray for the people of Nigeria as they try to cope with this violent terror group.
Photo caption: 1) Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has declared an “Islamic State” in northern Nigeria (Getty Images). 2) Boko Haram fighters.
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