On Saturday, the bloodthirsty gang of Islamic radicals massacred at least 86 people in a Nigerian village near a refugee camp, burning alive children screaming in pain inside huts which they set on fire, The Guardian and other publications reported.
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A further 62 people were being treated for burns according to Abba Musa of the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria.
The Nigerian military may be doing their best, but they are yet to win the battle against the insurgency; for a terrorist group that is “technically defeated”, these attacks by Boko Haram are several hits too many.
From the way and manner the insurgents operate, from the way they launch attacks on neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad, it can only mean they have a foothold somewhere.
Boko Haram groups have bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders.
The death toll of the Saturday attack on Maiduguri has risen to a total of 91 people, as more bodies were recovered, officials said. Two nearby camps housing about 25,000 internally displaced persons were also attacked.
Last year, Boko Haram overtook ISIS as the world’s most deadly terrorist organization, according to data released by the Global Terrorism Index. “I lost 11 people, and 5 of our children are nowhere to be found”, she said.
Nigeria has seen increase in attacks carried out by the group since Nigeria’s new President took office in May, unleashing a wave of violence that has claimed 800 lives in just two months. When we came back in the morning the entire community had been razed.
Mallam Hassan, another villager, gave a similar account.
“Boko Haram controlled a large slice of Nigeria”s northeast until early past year, when it was driven out of much of the region by Nigeria”s military.
An aid worker who did not want to be named, said the bodies of the victims had been evacuated to the hospital.
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“But the truth is that different affiliates have stronger or weaker relations with IS central, [and] the Boko Haram affiliation is relatively detached, unlike the one in Libya, which is actually directed by the IS leadership in Syria”, he said.
