VIOLENCE turned the town of Baga, in the northeastern state of Borno, to a slaughterhouse over the weekend as government security personnel operating as the Joint Task Force engaged in an intense battle with Islamic extremists, resulting in the death of about 185 people.
According to government sources, heavily-armed extremists used residents of Baga, a border town with neighboring Chad Republic, as human shield while soldiers set residential quarters on fire – an act which may have resulted in the high casualty figure of the operation.
A northeastern Nigerian town turned into a slaughterhouse as a battle between government troops and Islamist militants left at least 185 dead. Heavily-armed extremists used locals as human shields while soldiers set residential quarters on fire.
The town has been largely devastated in hours-long, fully-fledged urban combat between regular troops and Islamist insurgents that started on Friday, local government official Lawan Kole told journalists on Sunday.
Although the official body count confirms 185 citizens have been found dead, the real number of casualties may be much greater, as citizens continue to collect corpses throughout the town and in the suburbs.
The streets of Baga were strewn with the corpses of dead humans and animals and about 2,000 private houses and several markets were burnt down in fighting, reported local officials when they returned to the town on Sunday.
Most bodies were burnt beyond recognition as fire raged through the town.
The new stage of the conflict started on Friday after Islamic extremists of the ‘Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism’, widely known as Boko Haram (‘Western education is sinful’ in the western African Hausa language), insurgency murdered an army officer.
In return government troops blocked a mosque where they believed the militants found refuge, but very soon more militants armed with automatic weapons, heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades became engaged.
Heavy gunfire and explosions of the battle sent civilians fleeing into the bushland around the town.
They only dared to return on Sunday, when government officials returned to the town, only to find their dwellings and businesses in ashes, vehicles burnt down and scores of corpses on the streets.
According to Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye, the militants used town’s civilians as human shields during the fighting. He said the fires in the town started because of explosions, including those of caused by rocket-propelled grenades which could have a incendiary effect.
However residents said that soldiers deliberately set buildings on fire to drive militants out of private houses they used as sanctuary.
Many Baga residents have decided to leave the city for good, fearing that the militants will return sooner or later.
Authorities believe the escalation of the violence on the part of Boko Haram insurgency, is due to militants obtaining heavier, military-grade weapons.
Massacres, kidnappings and raids have characterized insurgency in the northern region since the riot started by Boko Haram in 2009. The riot was suppressed with a price of some 700 human casualties.
After that, hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings continued, claiming at least over 1,500 lives since 2010.