38 new victims of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), there are now more than 2,000 Christians and Muslims who died in politically motivated violence by the Islamist sect Boko Haram since a state of emergency was imposed on three states in northern Nigeria in May 2013. "Yesterday, 3 police officers and 35 Muslim civilians were killed in the village of Mafa – marking a new peak of violence in north-eastern Nigeria," said Ulrich Delius, the STP's Africa-consultant, in Göttingen on Tuesday. "We are deeply concerned about the fact that the number of victims of Islamist violence in northern Nigeria is increasing so fast. 699 people died in raids and bomb attacks since January 2014. Also, the violence tends to spread from north-eastern Nigeria to the neighboring regions. Eight people died in a firefight between Cameroonian soldiers and Boko Haram militants in Cameroon last Sunday."

Last weekend, there were 147 victims: On Friday night, the Nigerian Air Force bombed the village Dugolong by mistake, killing 20 civilians. 52 people died in a car bomb attack in Madiguri on Saturday, 39 inhabitants of the village Mainok were killed in a Boko Haram attack, and a student was murdered.

It has now become known that armed Boko Haram fighters attacked the village Mafa (located 45 kilometers to the north-east of the city of Maiduguri) on Sunday at about 8 pm, killing 32 residents. Another three policemen died when they tried to rescue the injured. The soldiers who were stationed in the area fled into the jungle because they felt outnumbered by the

Islamist attackers. The Islamist fighters burned most of the public buildings and many of the houses. Many villagers had already fled from the village before the attack and school buildings had been closed after Boko Haram announced their attack with leaflets the week before. "It is typical sign of failure that the Nigerian security forces are not even able to protect the civilian population effectively if an attack is announced several days before," said Delius.

Three more police officers were killed by suspected Islamist fighters yesterday near a roadblock close to the border between the states of Katsina and Kano in northern Nigeria. Boko Haram has not managed to make much of an appearance in these two states until now.