Boko Haram militants have killed at least 200 more people in a wave of attacks launched across Borno state in Northern Nigeria during the second week of June.
Three Christian villages – Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara – were reduced to ashes. Attackers killed, looted and stole cattle before burning homes and churches, say local media. All the villages are located a few kilometres from the Cameroon border, near the vast Sambisa forest, which hosts several militants’ camps, and where some of the missing Chibok girls were believed to be.
Pretending to be preachers
Boko Haram’s tactics of gathering villagers together before killing them were seen between Sunday and Wednesday. From Sunday, at least 200 people were killed; in at least one village, gunmen in military uniforms forced people to gather (by appearing to offer protection) before spraying them with bullets. On Wednesday, a group of about 45 people were killed after gathering together to listen to a sermon from militants who pretended to be preachers.
Meeting the President
On June 2, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, (OIC), Secretary General, Eyad Ameen Madani, went to meet Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, to express the ‘unity’ of his organization with Nigeria. This meeting comes alongside increased pressure on the Nigerian government both at home and abroad to do more to tackle the Islamist Boko Haram militants since the abduction of the 276 girls. 57 escaped in the early days of the abduction in April.
‘The OIC has issued statements that are very clear, that these people are outlaws and what they do are criminal acts; it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam’, Madani said.
However, the national Secretary General of the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Revd Musa Asake said that the OIC’s move is late and should have happened years ago.
‘Where have they been all this while? These people [Boko Haram] say, from day one, they are fulfilling the Islamic call [of jihad] and that they are going to change the Nigerian Constitution and replace it with ’sharia [law]. To make this happen, they go on killing innocent people and most of their victims are Christians’, said Asake.
He also said he is not convinced by this high-level meeting, saying that ‘to deny them on paper is not enough’ and that the OIC must clearly outline its plan of action to prove their commitment to stop Boko Haram’s extreme Islamist actions.
Still ‘hopeful’
Dr Stephen Davis, an Australian Anglican cleric appointed as the Nigerian president’s envoy in the negotiations with Boko Haram, remains hopeful that there will be success in getting the girls released. His comments came despite what he said was a recent ‘unhelpful’ leak of his involvement in the negotiations for their release.
News of his involvement broke alongside the release of a new video showing some of the schoolgirls Boko Haram has taken captive. The Daily Mail and others reported that the video (which has not been released to the public) was taken on May 19 by a Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida to prove that the girls are still alive.
