#News: Nigeria's Boko Haram Claims Baga Massacre And Threatens More Violence In New Video

[HuffingtonPost]

ABUJA, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A man purporting to be Islamist  Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau on Tuesday claimed an attack  on the northeastern town of Baga in which scores of civilians  were killed when the insurgents seized a multinational military  base.                

The insurgents, who invaded Baga at the start of the year,  razed many buildings and homes in the week that followed,  shooting civilians as they tried to flee, witnesses said.                

Some local officials put the death toll as high as 2,000,  although the military said it was 150.                

The video was in the trademark Boko Haram style, with the  bearded man claiming to be Shekau in combat fatigues talking in  the northern Nigerian Hausa language surrounded by masked  gunmen. The military says it killed the real Shekau.                

"We are the ones that carried out the attack and it is just  the tip of the iceberg," the man says. "There are more coming."                

Commenting on weapons seized from Baga, he says they are  "enough to annihilate Nigeria."                

Soldiers fled the area after the nearby army base, which is  the headquarters of a multinational force comprising troops from  Chad, Niger and Cameroon, by Lake Chad was overrun. Chad and  Cameroon are being drawn into the fight against Boko Haram, but  mistrust has hampered cooperation.                

The main claiming to be Shekau taunted the leaders of  Cameroon, Niger and Chad: Paul Biya, Mahamadou Issoufou and  Idris Deby.                

He also made it clear he doesn't care for either Nigerian   President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, or his main  opposition contender in Feb. 14 presidential elections Muhammadu  Buhari, a northern Muslim.                

"Jonathan you are in trouble," he says. "And Buhari, do you  think he is a true Muslim? He's an infidel."     (Reporting by Isaac Abrak; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by  James Dalgleish)
Source: huffingtonPost