Amnesty: Boko Haram has killed 223 civilians in Nigeria since April

Amnesty International, human rights watchdog, says Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria have lead to the deaths of at least 223 civilians since April.

The organisation added that the real figure might be higher because some attacks might have gone unreported.

“Between May and August, seven times’ more civilians were killed than in the preceding four months, while 100 civilians were killed in August alone,” it said.

 “The deadliest recent attack came on 25 July, when the armed group shot dead 40 people and abducted three others in an ambush on an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno state.

 “Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed at least 81 people in Nigeria since April, while 67 people have been abducted – mostly women and girls – since the start of the year.

 “There have been two reports of raids on villages in August, in which Boko Haram fighters rounded up and shot civilians, burned down homes and stole from people’s houses, shops and markets.”

The human rights watchdog also said the resurgence in Boko Haram attacks and suicide bombings in Cameroon and Nigeria had left at least 381 civilians dead in the five months since the start of April.

The organisation said data it collected showed a sharp rise in civilian deaths in the far north region of Cameroon and the Nigerian states of Borno and Adamawa driven by the armed group’s increased use of suicide bombers – often using women and girls who are forced to carry explosives into crowded areas.

“Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can,” Alioune Tine, Amnesty International’s director for West and Central Africa, said.

 “This wave of shocking Boko Haram violence, propelled by a sharp rise in suicide bombings, highlights the urgent need for protection and assistance for millions of civilians in the Lake Chad region. Governments in Nigeria, Cameroon and beyond must take swift action to protect them from this campaign of terror.” 

Amnesty International said across the Lake Chad region, millions of civilians are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of Boko Haram violence.

It disclosed that a total of 2.3 million people had been displaced across the region, and that the number includes 1.6 million internally displaced people and refugees in Nigeria and 303,000 in Cameroon, and another 374,000 displaced in Chad and Niger.

“More than seven million people across the region face serious food shortages, including five million in Nigeria and 1.5 million in Cameroon. There are 515,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, more than 85 percent of them in Nigeria,” the organisation said.

“The recent increase in insecurity has made humanitarian operations difficult, or even impossible, in some inaccessible areas of northeast Nigeria.”

Amnesty International urged governments across the Lake Chad region to increase their efforts to protect the hundreds of thousands of civilians at grave risk of being targeted by Boko Haram violence, abductions and abuses.

 “The international community should also rapidly scale up its commitment to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the millions in the region who need it,” it added.