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HUNDREDS OF BODIES — too many to count — remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International suggested is the “deadliest massacre” in the history of Boko Haram.
Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, said fighting continued for Baga, a town on the border with Chad where insurgents seized a key military base on 3 January and attacked again on Wednesday.
“Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted airstrikes against militant targets,” Omeri said in a statement.
District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents.
“The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous,” Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians in a defense group that fights Boko Haram, told The Associated Press.
He said the civilian fighters gave up on trying to count all the bodies.
An Amnesty International statement said there are reports the town was razed and as many as 2,000 people killed.
If true, “this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.
The previous bloodiest day in the uprising involved soldiers gunning down unarmed detainees freed in a March 14, 2014, attack on Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri city. Amnesty said then that satellite imagery indicated more than 600 people were killed that day.
The 5-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year alone, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations. More than a million people are displaced inside Nigeria and hundreds of thousands have fled across its borders into Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.
Suleiman Dauda, 12, said he ran into the bushes with neighbors when extremists attacked his village, Askira Uba, near Yola last year.
“I saw them kill my father, they slaughtered him like a ram. And up until now I don’t know where my mother is,” he told The Associated Press at Daware refugee camp in Yola.
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I heard this today, Friday, how was this not all over every news channel on Wednesday. These ba$tards need to be wipe off the planet and quickly
More people are reading the article about eejits adopting a tiger than have read this article about a horrific ongoing genocide. It speaks volumes
BBC websites reported up to two thousand dead on Wednesday I think, nobody seemed to notice. These are 9/11 type casualty figures.
Yet another bunch of idealist nutters – you don’t see America jumping in here though.
Wtf is going on in the world? So much murder and the year has only started. Between Paris and this, faith in humanity is low. Fcuk religion…it is such a protagonist of horror and pain.
Faith in humanity is low? A lot more good in the world than these filth who are in a tiny minority.
I see remarkable altruism and noblility of action, I see lots of idealism and I see such goodness in so many people that it balances against the briny number of hate mongers and perpetrators of violence. There is much more good than bad in humanity.
Islam should not be judged by these atrocities. This was Boko Harram, not Islam.
It should be judged by those who follow it’s teachings the closest.
Nope, your dead right it’s just a few million mad men doing all this in the name of Allah
Another Islamist terrorists group slaughtering thousands. Religion of Peace. Joke!!
I agree Anthony, millions of people should not be tarred with the same brush of a few nutters. The majority of people I truly believe have their own lives to live and have no truck with such extremismh
Well if your being technical about it your wrong. It was al Qaeda in Paris, trained in Yemen. If your going to label them that is
What are they then, Jehovas Witnesses ??
‘Islam should not be judged by these atrocities. This was Boko Harram, not Islam’
That is just your opinion. I doubt it’s Boko Harams. They define everthing they do through the lens of relgion. The religion being Islam.
Youth Defence and the Iona Institute do not fairly represent Catholicism. The IRA who committed terrible atrocities did not represent Catholicism. Extremist minorities discredit the religions to which they nominally belong.
I’m an atheist but we must distinguish between religions and the extreme fundamentalists who only nominally belong to such religions.
The IRA were not trying to forcefully impose theocratic religious law on the inhabitants of this country as has being pointed out many times on these threads. That analogy simply does not work. The IRA were not trying to represent Catholicism. Boko Haram would argue they are the real Muslims. As would Isis,Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab etc.etc.
@Anthony
The Iona Institute is not an extremist organisation.
That is a matter of opinion but I certainyly can see similarities in the values and aims of authoritarian groups which seek to impose religious dogma on our laws and civil governance.
I can see areas of agreement between extreme Roman Catholicism and extreme Islam and I can see that some Muslims in Ireland would find common ground with many of the objectives of the Iona Institute.
Fundamentalists, Christian, Jews, Muslims, Born Again types and atheist fundamentalists all share a very similar reactionary and authoritarian mindsets. There has been a lot of recent academic interest in the psychology of extremism and I found the Reactionary Mind very enlightening.
I can’t be more candid than this because the Iona Institute has greatly constrained my freedom of expression.
Out of curiousity, how exactly have the Iona institute constrained your freedom of expression?.
All religious fundamentalist are extremist
My freedom of expression is constrained because I’m not permitted to describe the Iona Institute for what it is. I am not alone in that.
Many people have been warned off making comments on what the Iona Institute is and the Irish media are super sensitive to any comment on the Iona Institute because of the RTE settlement. Unfortunately I have to be circumspect.
I can’t openly reveal what happened but there is some comfort in the fact that other people are in the same boat as me.
‘My freedom of expression is constrained because I’m not permitted to describe the Iona Institute for what it is’
You’re free to give your’re opinion on what you think is wrong and unpleasant about the IONA institute, just as you’re free to give you’re opinion on what you think is wrong and unpleasant about the Immigrant’s Council or Pavee Point. People here do it all the time.
I just hope that they don’t land here because I don’t think we’re prepared to handle this kind of stuff
This was Boko Haram, not Islam.
So why did they convert all those poor school girls so? Nothing to do with the ideology of Islam? Cop on
@Anthony, Get off the Internet you fool
Ben, would you like to deprive me of freedom of expression?
Islamists are trying to do that Anthony. 2 fingers to them. Don’t like it then P iss off to a country your views are welcome.
Let’s see. I’m told to leave Ireland and to get off the Internet. The irony is amusing.
The serious point though is if we give in to hostility to all of Islam, we just enlarge the problem.
The vast majority of all religions and of all people are good and decent, kind and even altruistic. Only a tiny minority of people are violent extremists. It is these people which should criticise, not their religions.
The agenda of the terrorists is to precipitate mass conflict between the West and Islam. We can decide not to serve that agenda.
Brevik was fixated on and opposed to Islam. He murdered many Labour Party supporters ion the hope of precipitating a war between the West and Islam. Norwegian society, acting with enlightenment, restraint, dignity and proportionality deprived Brevik of his wish.
Peaceful co-existence and harmony are the only viable route. We should not blame Muslims, the vast majority of whom are appalled by what happened.
Im talking about islamists Anthony. If they don’t like our ways P iss off someplace else.
‘This was Boko Haram, not Islam.’
I suppose the Inquisitors of medieval Spain were not Catholic?
I don’t want Islam or Sharia law to influence Ireland and I have no problem with the position that Muslims who dislike Irish values should reside elsewhere.
By the way, I have a similar viewpoint in relation to fundamentalist Roman Catholics who expect our civil laws to reflect Roman Catholic dogma.
I greatly admire the secular nature of civil government in France and I have always admired Charlie Hebdo.
But I doubt that secular victims in Charlie Hebdo would want to see all of Islam attacked although it is fully understandable and to be expected that there will be a period of strong backlash against Islam generally. This is what the perpetrators hoped for .
Islam is a religion, not a person. It’s a set of beliefs and ideas and like any set of beliefs and ideas deserves to be analysed, critiqued and mocked if necessary. People have doing the same with Christianity since the time of the Enlightement. Islam should be no different.
Criticise the tenets of Islam all you wish, I strongly disagree with many of its tenets, but it is irrational to blame Islam generally because the penetrators of atrocities happen to be Muslim.
Peaceful coexistence? Anthony what does the Qur’an say about the infidels and nonbelievers? The problem is not Islamic fundamentalists the problem is the fundamentals of Islam.
If something has peaceful principles well the extreme of that would be ultra peaceful.
If something has violent principles the extreme of that is ultra violence.The extreme of Islam is in the latter category.
The fact not all Muslims go to the extreme end of their faith doesn’t mean it’s not harmful and dangerous.
Let’s not forget the encroachment of human rights particular of women’s under Islamic law.In no way shape or form should freedom of expression of a backward religion like Islam supersede Human rights.
Anyone think the 1000 women murdered in Pakistan per year as “Honour” killings is a trivial matter that freedom of religion should make it OK?
Or the “crime” of leaving the Islamic faith apostasy is punished by stoning to death. (Is that an OK expression of that religion?)
If you stand for these “religious principles” or would defend them well you’re as warped as the cowards who attacked in Paris.
Why are the west not intervening? And providing support?
It is.
Well…. Mostly France.
France has been kicking ass across jihadis Africa for years.
They are trying but when they arrive in Nigeria they are blocked
Presuming we are all Christians contributing here, would we all subscribe to the actions, let’s say of the Conquistadors, who carried out atrocities in South and Central America giving the indigenous people much the same choice as ISIS or Boko Haram give to their victims?
It is dangerous and unfair to lump all Muslims into the same bracket as the terrorists, they may share the same faith but their interpretations of that faith are worlds apart.
Why would you presume that?
Let’s not presume then.
You are quite welcome to opt out but in a country where 95% of the population are baptised Christians, I think it’s a fair assumption to make. I would also think it’s safe to presume that those making the disparaging remarks about Islam are not Muslims.
Ya except the crusades were a 1000 years ago most of Europe has evolved from that, the like of ISIS and Boko Haram have not
Baptised maybe but definitely not practising. Not everyone on here is Irish either.
Regardless to whether practising or not, your formative years would have been lived in a Christian environment and opinions and ideas would stem from there. I’d imagine those who are not Irish and are not Muslim, would have had a similar upbringing.
X, Islam is 600 years behind Christianity. The equivalent era for Christianity would have been the fifteenth century, the very time when Christian Europe was setting out on world conquest, as I said earlier, there are many chapters in that book that we need not be proud of.
There will always be fanatical elements in any religion, some manifest themselves in aggression against non believers and others just isolate themselves. Isis and Boko Haram are examples of the former.
What’s your point then exactly? Give it 600 years and everything will be all good? Bare in mind that six hundred years ago there was no concept of human rights anywhere. Everywhere was cruel, including the pre-Columbus Americas.The Incas, Mayans and the Aztecs could be as imperialistic and cruel as the Conquistadors. They just weren’t as advanced at warfare so they got wiped out. I
Okay so Ireland is accepting to receive 10k Syrian refugees this year, the Paris attacks could happen here on our land. Also does this indicate that were will be receiving Nigerian refugees too? Wow, we can’t even look after our own but yet let’s welcome more foreigners here to claim welfare and take our social housing.
This isn’t democracy this is just plain non logical and lack of, common sense.
Don’t be gullible and dumb Religion is only used as an excuse to kill,same with these fools who think if u legalized drugs there would be no crime,other vices and agendas would be and are used.
This goes a lot deeper than religion this is politics the elections are starting next month and it suits president Goodluck Jonathan too have this type of carnage going on it will allow him to close at least two of the northern states that they can not vote giving Goodluck an unfair advantage in an election that is already rigged in his favour.my thumb is tired could go on all night but I think you got the message
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