According to the UN, at least 110 people were killed in an attack on a village in Nigeria, for which the Islamist group Boko Haram is held responsible. „At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly murdered and many more injured,“ said UN Auxiliary Coordinator Edward Kallon today. The attack on the village of Koshobe near the city of Maiduguri in the north-east of the country had occurred the day before.
„The incident is the most brutal direct attack on innocent civilians this year,“ said Kallon, „I demand that the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act be brought to justice.“
President condemned attack
The Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also condemned the attack near the regional capital Maiduguri. „The whole country has been wounded from these pointless killings,“ he said. The act took place on the day of the first regional election in Borno since 2009, when riots broke out by the Islamist group Boko Haram. Because of the continuing violence by Islamist militias, the election was repeatedly postponed.
According to the militia leader Babakura Kolo, whose militia is fighting against Boko Haram, the victims were attacked and handcuffed while they were working in rice fields in the village of Koshobe. Then their throats were cut. The attack was „without a doubt“ carried out by fighters of the Boko Haram militia, Kolo said yesterday. The Islamists killed a total of 22 farm workers in two attacks near Maiduguri in October.
Boko Haram and the West African branch of the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS), ISWAP, had recently increasingly attacked farmers, woodworkers, cattle farmers and fishermen because they allegedly worked as informants for the army. In 2016, ISWAP split from the Boko Haram militia, which had been violently fighting for an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The attacks by the militias and their fighting with the army killed around 36,000 people in recent years and two million more fled.
