Hundreds of unattended corpses, mostly of children, women and aged ones litter the bushes around Baga town, who could not run when Boko Haram terrorists attacked the fishing community and dislodged a major military base of a Joint Task Force, fleeing residents have said.
There are also claims that over 2,000 persons may have been killed – a figure that was, however, disputed by the senator representing Borno North senatorial district, Senator Maina Maaji Lawan, in a radio interview on Thursday.
District head of Baga, Baba Abba Hassan, also denied the claims that over 2,000 persons may have been killed, even though he did agree that those killed may well be counted in hundreds.
“I cannot tell you the actual number of people killed because many were pursued to the bushes and killed. I can say hundreds have been killed so far. They include women and children,” he said.
“The terrorists have also destroyed hundreds of houses in Baga because they were well prepared, they came with dozens of vehicles and first attacked the multi-national joint task force location.
The local monarch said when soldiers at the military base in Baga were dislodged, the youth Vigilante, otherwise known as Civilian Joint Task Force, tried to resist the Boko Haram by killing many of them, until they were overpowered by the terrorists.
“There was resistance initially by our Civilian-JTF, but later, the insurgents had the upper hand. They have remained in Baga since the first day of the attack. They also pursued our people to the bushes and killed them,” he said.
Muhammed Abbas Gava, an official of the local Vigilante told LEADERSHIP by phone last night that “the human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous.”
“Our members of the Vigilante Group of Nigerian that managed to escape from Baga said they ran out of count of corpses of women, children and aged persons killed in the bushes around Baga. No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now,” said Gava.
LEADERSHIP can confirm that hundreds of displaced persons from Baga have since Friday begun to arrive Maiduguri mostly on foot.
