Posted on 01/17/2015 3:57:20 PM PST by kindred
Satellite images released on 15 January 2015 provide indisputable and shocking evidence of the scale of last week’s attack on the towns of Baga and Doron Baga by Boko Haram militants.
Before and after images of two neighbouring towns, Baga (160 kilometres from Maiduguri) and Doron Baga (also known as Doro Gowon, 2.5 km from Baga), taken on 2 and 7 January show the devastating effect of the attacks which left over 3,700 structures damaged or completely destroyed. Other nearby towns and villages were also attacked over this period.
“These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International, who released the images.
“Of all Boko Haram assaults analysed by [us], this is the largest and most destructive yet. It represents a deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and schools are now burnt out ruins”, he added.
The analysis shows just two of the many towns and villages that fell victim to a series of Boko Haram attacks which began on 3 January 2015.
In Baga, a densely populated town less than two square kilometres in size, approximately 620 structures were damaged or completely destroyed by fire.
In Doron Baga over 3,100 structures were damaged or destroyed by fire affecting most of the four square kilometre town. Many of the wooden fishing boats along the shoreline, visible in the images taken on the 2 January, are no longer present in the 7 January images tallying with eye witnesses’ testimony that desperate residents fled by boat across Lake Chad.
Thousands of people have fled the violence across the border to Chad and to other parts of Nigeria including Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. These people are adding to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees, who have already stretched the capacity of host communities and government authorities.
Development and human rights NGOs are calling on the governments of Nigeria and Chad to ensure these displaced people are protected and provided with adequate humanitarian assistance.
The destruction shown in these images matches the horrific testimonies that Amnesty has gathered. Interviews with eyewitnesses as well as with local government officials and local human rights activists suggest that Boko Haram militants shot hundreds of civilians.
A man in his fifties told the human rights agency what happened in Baga during the attack.
He said: “They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and killing.”
The man hid in the bush and was later discovered by Boko Haram fighters, who detained him in Doron Baga for four days.
Those who fled describe seeing many more corpses in the bush. “I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked,” one woman told Amnesty International.
Another witness described how Boko Haram were shooting indiscriminately killing even small children and a woman who was in labour. “[H]alf of the baby boy is out and she died like this,” he said.
Boko Haram fighters have repeatedly targeted communities for their perceived collaboration with the security forces. Towns that formed state-sponsored militia groups known as the Civilian Joint Task Force (Civilian JTF) have suffered particularly brutal attacks.
Civilian JTF groups were active in Baga and a senior military official confirmed to Amnesty International confidentially that at times the military took these members on operations to attack Boko Haram positions.
A witness has told Amnesty that during the attack on Baga he heard Boko Haram fighters saying they were searching for Civilian JTF members, as they went house to house shooting men of fighting age.
After the attack on Baga, witnesses describe how Boko Haram drove into the bush rounding up women, children and the elderly who had escaped.
According to one woman who was detained for four days “Boko Haram took around 300 women and kept us in a school in Baga. They released the older women, mothers and most of the children after four days but are still keeping the younger women.”
Amnesty International is calling on Boko Haram to stop killing civilians. The deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of their property by Boko Haram are war crimes and crimes against humanity and must be duly investigated.
The government should take all possible legal steps to restore security in the north-east and ensure protections of civilians, the NGO says.
“Up until now, the isolation of Baga combined with the fact that Boko Haram remains in control of the area has meant that it has been very difficult to verify what happened there. Residents have not been able to return to bury the dead, let alone count their number. But through these satellite images combined with graphic testimonies a picture of what is likely to be Boko Haram’s deadliest attack ever is becoming clearer,” said the agency's Daniel Eyre.
“This week, Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information stated that the number of people killed in Baga including Boko Haram fighters “has so far not exceeded about 150”. These images, together with the stories of those who survived the attack, suggest that the final death toll could be much higher than this figure.”
Baga and Doron Baga are towns by the edge of Lake Chad, in the north eastern part of Borno State, Nigeria. The border between Nigeria and Chad passes through Lake Chad. Baga and Doron Baga are located in Kukawa Local Government Area, which according to the 2006 census had a population of 203,864.
Amnesty commissioned the satellite data of the area from the commercial provider DigitalGlobe, following initial reports of the attack.
The number of structures damaged or destroyed in Doron Baga is likely to be higher than the 3,100 identified, but it proved difficult to delineate and confirm individual structures in the densely packed areas and under tree canopies.
Boko Haram militants attacked Baga and surrounding towns and villages on Saturday 3 January. At 6am they attacked the military base of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) outside of Baga. After overwhelming the soldiers stationed at the base, Boko Haram fighters went on to attack Baga, Doron Baga and other villages in the area.
Since 2009, Boko Haram has deliberately targeted civilians through raids, abductions and bomb attacks with attacks increasing in frequency and severity. The effects on the civilian population have been devastating with thousands killed, hundreds abducted and hundreds of thousands forced to leave their homes.
Amnesty says it has raised concerns on a number of occasions that security forces are not doing enough to protect civilians from human rights abuses committed by Boko Haram. There have been very few effective investigations and prosecutions of Boko Haram members for crimes under international law.
The Baga attack demonstrates how the conflict has dramatically escalated in the last 12 months. In 2014 more than 4,000 civilians were killed by Boko Haram, it is estimated.
Médecins sans Frontières reported on 14 January that 5,000 survivors of the attack on Baga are staying in a camp in Maiduguri. The UN refugee agency (UNHRC) reported on 9 January that some 7,300 Nigerian refugees had arrived in western Chad.
Obama has already booked Toto to fly in with John Kerry and perform “Africa” to soothe tensions.
More like Obama is cheering them on with some popcorn!
ROFL GOOD ONE!
Where are the Sat Pictures?
You don’t need a satellite to realize that Islamic culture is simply not compatible with the values and customs of the West. The irony is that these Muslim killers would all migrate to the lands formerly known as Christendom if they could. What is even more incredible is that they would be given legal rights and material support as soon as they arrived.
http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/western-africa/2014/10/27/nigeria-goodluck-jonathan-scandal-election/
So where are the images?
ROTFLMAO!
Boko Haram aren’t a problem. Kill them or learn to live with them.
Goodluck Johnathan and the wife sound a lot like the Obamas.
When parents of kidnapped girls protested the lack of action, Mrs Goodluck had them arrested despite the fact that she doesn’t have any official power to do so.
I wish Obozo would just admit he was a Muslim terrorist and get it over with
Find them yourself if you want, but just because murders are committed without pictures does not make them any less murders. And the left wing of America always subdues all pictures of atrocities they do not want the ignorant western fools to see. Many murders are committed without pictures as the courts throughout time can validate.
Another murderess like Winnie Mandella, I wonder.
Nigeria is a basket case, like the rest of Africa.
You are correct, this Administration is absolutely analogous to an African dictatorship.
Right down to the fake Christianity.
Remember Islam is not the problem...!!!
Spot on!
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