Amnesty International: Boko Haram has carried out its deadliest mass killing

Hundreds of bodies, which have not yet been fully counted, have been discovered in the deserts of northern Nigeria; it is reported that these individuals were killed by the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram. Amnesty International has described this attack as the 'deadliest mass killing' by Boko Haram. According to the Associated Press, Mike Omeri, a spokesperson for the Nigerian government, stated that battles occurred in the border town of Baga, near Chad, which continued until Friday, January 9. Boko Haram militants seized an army base in this town on January 3 and attacked the town again on Wednesday. Mike Omeri said in a statement, 'Security forces responded quickly to these attacks, targeting the militants with heavy weapons and airstrikes.' Baba Aba Hassan, a senior government official in the region, stated that most victims were women, children, and elderly individuals who could not escape quickly during the militants' attack on Baga. The attackers assaulted the town's residents with rockets, mortars, and machine guns. Mahmoud Aba Qawa, a spokesperson for a group of residents who have formed armed resistance against Boko Haram, told the Associated Press, 'The massacre carried out by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was immense.' He said, 'The armed civilians in this town gave up counting the bodies. No one could stay next to the corpses, even those who were severely injured and might have already died.' Amnesty International stated in a report that, according to reports from the area, the town has been leveled and nearly 2,000 people have been killed. Daniel Ire, a Nigeria researcher at Amnesty International, said, 'If the reports are true, this raid is a sign of an escalation of Boko Haram's ruthless and bloody attacks.' Rescuers have reported that due to the conditions resulting from the increase in deadly Boko Haram attacks, they are facing significant challenges in assisting children who have been separated from their parents. Before this massacre, the deadliest incident in recent unrest in Nigeria was the shooting of unarmed captives on March 14, 2014, during an attack on the Giwa military base in Maiduguri. Amnesty International at that time stated that satellite images indicated that more than 600 people were killed that day. According to the Council on Foreign Relations research institute in Washington, over the past five years of violent Boko Haram attacks, more than ten thousand people were killed just last year. More than one million people have been displaced within Nigeria, and hundreds of thousands have fled to Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.