Over 11 soldiers and scores of civilians were
reportedly killed when the Boko Haram sect
attacked the army base in Baga, Borno State on
Saturday, a security source and witnesses said
on Monday.
The Islamists attacked the northeastern town of
Baga and the barracks on its outskirts on
Saturday, potentially providing a launchpad for
more attacks in the country and other
neighbouring nations.
Lying at the end of a semi-desert road, Baga is
the headquarters of a multinational force
comprising troops from Niger, Nigeria, Chad and
Cameroon.
Soldiers and civilians had fled the town after the
attack on the Army base.
Unconfirmed report also said that 18 female
soldiers attached to the base were feared dead
as they had not been found since the invasion.
The group’s five year insurgency to establish an
Islamic state has killed many thousands in
Africa’s top economy and most populous nation.
More than 10,000 died in the violence last year,
the Council on Foreign Relations says.
Witnesses who escaped to the bush said they
ran past the bodies of soldiers and civilians
along the way.
“I was hiding on a tree top since that Saturday
night until this morning at 3 a.m.,” Abubakar
Usman, a Baga resident, told Reuters by
telephone.
“Women in a nearby house brought us water and
food … We snuck out and on our way, we saw
lots of dead soldiers and 10 bodies of women.”
A military source said at least 11 soldiers had
been killed along with a large number of civilians
around the town, which was still in the militants’
hands on Monday.
He said they set fire to houses and shot at
residents as they tried to flee. The military did
not immediately respond to a request for official
comment.
“They are still there and many people (civilians)
mostly women, children and aged one are still
trapped in the town,” a man who works between
the city of Maiduguri and Baga said.
Another witness, who gave his name only as
Yusuf, said he tripped and fell as he tried to flee
the town. When he got up, he saw about 20
bodies scattered along the ground where he was.
On Saturday, it was reported that the sect killed
15 people when they attacked a bus in
Cameroon.
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