Nigeria Says It Rescued Hundreds From Suspected Boko Haram Territory
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Version 0 of 1. DAKAR, Senegal — The Nigerian Army contended on Tuesday that it had rescued hundreds of kidnapped girls and women from a remote region, even as new evidence of a mass killing by Boko Haram terrorists in northern Nigeria emerged, with numerous corpses discovered in a dry riverbed. The army asserted in a Twitter post on Tuesday that it had rescued 200 girls and 93 abducted women in the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram has long been suspected of operating. The army offered few details, but the hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok more than a year ago were not among those rescued, a spokesman later told Reuters. The mass abduction ignited international alarm at Boko Haram’s unchecked rampages across northern Nigeria. In response, the government has repeatedly declared in the past year that it had reached a cease-fire with Boko Haram, that the girls would soon be rescued, that they had been located and even, on a previous occasion, that they had been rescued. The claims quickly proved to be untrue. Human rights groups say Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of women, and possibly thousands, in recent years. “It may be women that B. H. has kidnapped from village to village,” said Hussaini Monguno, a security adviser to the governor of Borno State, where the Sambisa Forest is. “How could they rescue over 200 women without getting Shekau or the top B. H. commanders?” Mr. Monguno added, referring to Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau. “How many were killed? Without clear explanation, people will always believe they just want to cover up.” Boko Haram has lost ground to Nigerian and international forces in recent weeks, but it remains deadly. Groups of bodies were found by officials sent last week to the town of Damasak to reconnoiter a possible return of residents to the now-deserted town. Damasak, on the border with Niger, was occupied by Boko Haram from last November until the militants were chased out by soldiers from Chad and Niger in early March. The victims, apparently residents, had been shot in the head and tossed into the river during the Boko Haram occupation of the town, a local official said. “They were all thrown in the river, and now the river has dried up,” the local official, Babagana Mustapha, said in a telephone interview from the state capital, Maiduguri. “You will see 10 here, seven there. We didn’t have time to assess all the dead bodies,” Mr. Mustapha said. Boko Haram, now on the defensive after a sustained assault by troops from four neighboring nations, as well as South African mercenaries, punctuated its reign of terror over northeastern Nigeria last year with mass abductions and serial massacres of civilians, like the one apparently carried out at Damasak. For nearly a year it controlled many of the towns and the villages in the region, but since late January has been pushed back. Nigeria’s president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general who is scheduled to take office late next month, has vowed to finish off the Islamist group. Indeed, attacks in the past week indicate that Boko Haram is not yet defeated. On Saturday, 46 soldiers from Niger and 28 civilians were killed on an island in Lake Chad by militants, 156 of whom were also killed, Niger’s Defense Ministry said. This week the Nigerian news media reported a massacre of 21 displaced civilians trying to return home in Yobe State. |