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secondAccording to the United Nations, dozens of people were killed in an attack on a village in Nigeria, for which the Islamist group Boko Haram is blamed. The event took place on Saturday in the rice fields of the village of Koschobe in Borno state in the northeast of the country. 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 is 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 resident of the region, Danjuma Saidu, told the German Press Agency (dpa) that some of the fatalities had gunshot wounds, others a slit. He reported that more than 40 bodies had been found. Kallon said area residents were “shocked by the brutality of yesterday’s attack and fearful for their safety.”
Attacked, bound and killed
President Muhammadu Buhari also strongly condemned the attack. “The whole country is wounded by these senseless killings,” his spokesman Garba Shehu was quoted as saying. Consequently, the head of state described the “terrorist killings” as insane. The incident occurred on the day of the first regional elections in Borno since 2009, when riots broke out by the Islamist group Boko Haram. Due to continued violence by Islamist militias, the elections were repeatedly postponed.
It was not initially clear who was behind the atrocity. However, for years there have been repeated attacks in Borno by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram or the splinter group Iswap, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) 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 impending food crisis in Borno state. Boko Haram and Iswap, the West African branch of the “Islamic State” terrorist militia, recently increasingly targeted farmers, carpenters, ranchers and fishermen because they allegedly worked as informants for the army.
According to the leader of the Babakura Kolo militia, whose militia is fighting against Boko Haram, the victims were attacked and handcuffed while working in the rice fields in the town of Koschobe. Then they cut their throats. The attack was “undoubtedly” carried out by fighters from the Boko Haram militia, “Kolo said on Saturday. Islamists killed a total of 22 farm workers in two attacks near Maiduguri in October.
Boko Haram has been terrorizing the people of Borno and neighboring countries for more than ten years. According to the UN refugee agency, at least 2.4 million people are fleeing in northeast Nigeria and neighboring countries due to violence by armed groups.
In 2016, Iswap split from the Boko Haram militia, which had been fighting violently for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. Attacks by the militias and their clashes with the army killed an estimated 36,000 people in recent years and two million more fled.
