65 people fall victim to massacres by Islamists

At least 65 people were killed on Saturday night, when fighters of the Islamist terror sect Boko Haram raided several villages in the state of Borno, northern Nigeria. Eyewitnesses reported that most of the victims were Christians. "The Boko Haram terror sect has killed 334 people in northern Nigeria since early January 2014," reported the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Sunday. "In northern Nigeria, 1,580 Christians and Muslims got killed in raids by Islamist fighters since a state of emergency was imposed on the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe on May 14, 2013," said the STP's Africa-consultant Ulrich Delius.

By imposing the state of emergency, the Nigerian security forces had tried to defeat the Boko Haram sect and to keep the population of northern Nigeria safe. "Obviously, they did not succeed," said Delius. "On the contrary, the massive military and police operations caused even more violence. Yesterday's massacre is most probably a terrible act of retaliation by Boko Haram for an air raid led by the Nigerian armed forces. "Last Wednesday, the Air Force bombed a putative Islamist training camp in the vicinity of the villages that were now attacked. Nine soldiers and several militant Islamists had been killed in the air raid and the subsequent armed clashes.

The Boko Haram fighters invaded a total of eight villages on Saturday night. According to reports by survivors from Izghe, they had been dressed in military uniforms and had moved into the villages with trucks and motorcycles. Then, they had rounded up and shot the villagers. A few men were able to escape from the village before the attackers were able to capture them. Most of the victims are women, children and elderly people. The attackers also burned many of the houses.

At least 25 people were killed in the village of Yazza. More than 10,000 people fled from the region after the massacres, for fear of further attacks by Boko Haram.

Last Tuesday, Boko Haram fighters killed 62 people and burned down more than 2,000 during a raid on the village of Konduga.