Boko Haram terrorizes civilian population: 89 dead and 27 abductions within two weeks

According to a report by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the Islamist Boko Haram sect continues to commit terrorist attacks in northern Nigeria continue. In Borno state, 89 people were killed and 27 people kidnapped alongside raids on villages and travelers during the past two weeks. Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed. "Despite some retaliatory strikes against Boko Haram camps, the Nigerian Army has not succeeded in protecting the civilian population from new attacks," criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP's Aftica-consultant, in Göttingen on Friday. About 1,300 people died in attacks led by Boko Haram since a state of emergency was imposed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa state in May 2013.

During the first months after the state of emergency was imposed, it was mainly Christians who fell victim to the violence, but now most of the victims are Muslims. They are being intimidated to keep them from cooperating with the army and the police. Boko Haram focuses especially on young people who are fighting the Islamist extremists together with the army and police forces.

For instance, Boko Haram took revenge for a raid led by the army against one of their camps by attacking the village of Sabon Gari on November 29, killing 20 civilians and destroying more than 100 houses. The day after, Boko Haram fighters ambushed seven fishermen and murdered them after some of their fighters had been arrested. 24 more fishermen died on November 30 in an attack on their village Madayi Tschad. 20 soldiers and four civilians got killed during an attack on a military camp in the provincial capital of Maiduguri on December 2. On December 8, five travelers were killed near the village Gwoza and nine traders were found dead three days later, murdered in their minibus on the road from Maiduguri to Damboa. Boko Haram fighters also kidnapped 27 travelers on the same road that day. So far, there is no trace of them.

"The brutality and ruthlessness of the Nigerian security forces is stoking the violence too," said Delius. On December 4, following protests against severe human rights violations committed in the cause of the struggle against Boko Haram, the army had to admit that 1,400 suspected fighters of the sect had been kept detained for months without a regular trial. The army announced that 167 of them would be released, 500 brought before a court and further investigations carried out against the remaining 614.