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| Boko Haram seizes military base on Nigeria border | Boko Haram seizes military base on Nigeria border |
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| Boko Haram have seized an army camp in the remote Nigerian border village of Baga, the second time the militants have overrun a military base in a week. | Boko Haram have seized an army camp in the remote Nigerian border village of Baga, the second time the militants have overrun a military base in a week. |
| Fleeing residents said the village on the shores of Lake Chad – where a previous massacre left up to 185 dead – was a smouldering wreck after several hours of fierce fighting. News of the attack on Sunday only began to trickle out after survivors reached the state’s capital, Maiduguri, or neighbouring Cameroon and Chad. | Fleeing residents said the village on the shores of Lake Chad – where a previous massacre left up to 185 dead – was a smouldering wreck after several hours of fierce fighting. News of the attack on Sunday only began to trickle out after survivors reached the state’s capital, Maiduguri, or neighbouring Cameroon and Chad. |
| “They came, many hundreds of them, with guns, trucks and grenades,” said a Baga resident who gave only his first name, Amosun. “They burned all the houses they could reach and set the military base on fire.” | |
| Fisherman Kumsuri Gaborou said up to 300 residents were unaccounted for, although some may have simply been lost in the chaos. Telephone lines are notoriously patchy along the porous border region, which connects Nigeria with Chad and Cameroon, allowing ordinary citizens and the militants to move freely between all three countries. Dozens of residents drowned while trying to flee to safety across Lake Chad, Gaborou added. | Fisherman Kumsuri Gaborou said up to 300 residents were unaccounted for, although some may have simply been lost in the chaos. Telephone lines are notoriously patchy along the porous border region, which connects Nigeria with Chad and Cameroon, allowing ordinary citizens and the militants to move freely between all three countries. Dozens of residents drowned while trying to flee to safety across Lake Chad, Gaborou added. |
| “We don’t know exactly how many lives are lost, but it was many. Some ran away into the bush and others drowned. The canoes were completely overloaded and turned upside down. I saw at least three boats of women and children all dead that way,” Garborou said by phone from Chad, where he had fled. | “We don’t know exactly how many lives are lost, but it was many. Some ran away into the bush and others drowned. The canoes were completely overloaded and turned upside down. I saw at least three boats of women and children all dead that way,” Garborou said by phone from Chad, where he had fled. |
| Baga is notionally the headquarters of a multinational task force comprising troops from Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon, although only Nigerian troops are based there. | Baga is notionally the headquarters of a multinational task force comprising troops from Niger, Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon, although only Nigerian troops are based there. |
| A Nigerian security source told the Guardian that troops had held back the militants for several hours until they ran out of ammunition. Some threw away their guns and fled after repeated requests for reinforcements went unheeded, he added. A military spokesperson said the troops had fought “valiantly” but did not comment on whether reinforcements had arrived. | |
| Up to 185 were killed in Baga last year, making the village an early portent of Boko Haram’s new tactics of striking remote settlements before melting into the vast semi-desert surroundings. Since being squeezed out of their urban strongholds by a renewed military push, the militants’ attacks have also spilled over into neighbouring Cameroon’s far north. | Up to 185 were killed in Baga last year, making the village an early portent of Boko Haram’s new tactics of striking remote settlements before melting into the vast semi-desert surroundings. Since being squeezed out of their urban strongholds by a renewed military push, the militants’ attacks have also spilled over into neighbouring Cameroon’s far north. |
| Last week, the militants also briefly occupied an army camp in Cameroon’s Achigachia, prompting authorities there to launch their first-ever air strikes against the sect. At least 15 people were gunned down in a bus shortly after New Year, while a wave of recent attacks has forced many living along the border to abandon their farms, raising the spectre of food shortages. | |
| Attacks have also continued in Nigeria, underlining security challenges ahead of upcoming elections in February. Last month, at least 100 women and children were reportedly kidnapped and 35 people killed in Gumsuri, some 30 miles (48km) from Chibok, where 276 schoolgirls were abducted in April 2014. | Attacks have also continued in Nigeria, underlining security challenges ahead of upcoming elections in February. Last month, at least 100 women and children were reportedly kidnapped and 35 people killed in Gumsuri, some 30 miles (48km) from Chibok, where 276 schoolgirls were abducted in April 2014. |
| More than 10,000 people were killed last year as a result of Boko Haram’s quest to carve out an Islamic caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria. An estimated 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes during the five-year insurgency. |