#News: Nigeria leader visits attack victims

[BBC]

 Boko Haram's capture of Baga 03 January: Social media reports of Baga attack first emerge

04 January: Boko Haram claims to have captured Baga

08 January: Reports emerge of bodies strewn on the streets in Baga, with some saying 2,000 people killed

12 January: The government says that the number of people who lost their lives in Baga was no more than 150, including militants

15 January: Satellite images released by Amnesty International suggest the number of dead is far higher than officially admitted

 Officials said militants had attacked Baga on 7 January, four days after overrunning a multinational military base in the town that had been abandoned by Nigerian troops.

Amnesty's Adotei Akwei told the BBC that although it was still difficult to access the area where the attack took place, the Nigerian government was "grossly understating" the death toll.

"They killed so many people," one man told the group. "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."

 Boko Haram at a glance    

• Founded in 2002
• Initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
• Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
• Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
• Some three million people affected
• Declared terrorist group by US in 2013

Who are Boko Haram?

Why Nigeria has not defeated Boko Haram

 One witness was quoted as saying that victims included small children and a woman in labour.

Afterwards, militants drove into the surrounding country, rounding up women, children and the elderly, unnamed witnesses told the group.

"Boko Haram took around 300 women and kept us in a school in Baga," one woman, who Amnesty said had been held for four days, was quoted as saying.

"They released the older women, mothers and most of the children after four days but are still keeping the younger women."

   
Source: BBC