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The attack on the village of Koshobe in northeast Nigeria is said to have occurred on Saturday.
According to the UN, dozens of people were killed in a “brutal” attack in northeast Nigeria. Gunmen on motorcycles attacked men and women in Koshobe and surrounding areas in Borno state on Saturday while they were working in the fields, as Edward Kallon, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, announced on Sunday. “The incident marks the most brutal direct attack on innocent civilians this year.”
Several other people were injured, Kallon said. There are also reports that several women have been abducted. Kallon called for his immediate release. A local resident, Danjuma Saidu, said that some of the fatalities had gunshot wounds and others had their throats slit. Residents of the area were “shocked by the brutality of yesterday’s attack and fear for their safety,” Kallon said.
Attacks again and again
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemned the attack. “The whole country is hurt by these senseless killings,” his spokesman Garba Shehu said, quoted by him.
It was initially unclear who was behind the atrocity. For years, however, there have been repeated attacks in Borno by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram or the splinter group Iswap, which swore allegiance to the Islamic State a few years ago.
Farmers, fishermen and families trying to restore part of their livelihoods after a decade of conflict are too often targeted, Kallon criticized. Helping rural communities to plow the land and rebuild their livelihoods is therefore one of the UN’s priorities and the only way to avoid an imminent food crisis in the state of Borno.
Boko Haram has been terrorizing people in Borno and neighboring countries for more than ten years. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at least 2.4 million people are fleeing in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries due to violence from armed groups.
(WHAT / dpa)
