Again, Boko Haram attacks Baga

For the second time in a week, the north-eastern town of Baga, Borno state, where Boko Haram seized a military base just on Sunday, has been attacked again.

Musa Alhaji Bukar, a top government official, told BBC that the second attack was launched on Wednesday.

Bukar said the insurgents burnt down almost the entire town, killing “more than 2,000” people in two raids that were only days apart.

He added that slain bodies were scattered over the streets of Baga, while the entire town had literally been burnt down.

He said in addition to Baga, Boko Haram was in control of 16 other communities.

“Those who fled reported that they had been unable to bury the dead, and corpses littered the town’s streets,” he said.

In 2014 alone, more than 2,000 people in north-eastern Nigeria lost their lives to attacks by the sect, while more than seven times the figure were displaced.

Displaced residents and natives of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa – the states worst-hit by the insurgency – have mainly been fleeing to neighbouring states and cities considered relatively safe.

But they have also been trooping to neighbouring countries Chad, Cameroon and Niger republic.

In November 2014, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said that about 43,000 Nigerians had poured into Cameroon so far, 17,000 of them residing in the refugee camp in Minawao.