A
global human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI), said on
Monday that the resurgence in Boko Haram attacks and suicide bombings in
Cameroun and Nigeria has left over 381 civilians dead since April 2017,
with casualties figures more than doubling those of the previous five
months...
The
group also said that across the Lake Chad region, millions of civilians
are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of Boko Haram
violence.
According
to data collected by the organisation, a sharp rise in civilian deaths
in the Far North region of Cameroun and the Nigerian states of Borno and
Adamawa has been driven by the armed group’s increased use of suicide
bombers, often using women and girls who are forced to carry explosives
into crowded areas.
“Boko
Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified
by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the
sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can,” Amnesty
International’s Director for West and Central Africa, Alioune Tine, stated in a statement on Monday.
“This
wave of shocking Boko Haram violence, propelled by a sharp rise in
suicide bombings, highlights the urgent need for protection and
assistance for millions of civilians in the Lake Chad region.
Governments in Nigeria, Cameroun and beyond must take swift action to
protect them from this campaign of terror,” AI said.
In
the North eastern Nigeria, AI added, mass killings and abductions by
Boko Haram have led to the killing of at least 223 civilians since
April, saying that the real figure might be higher still as some attacks
might have gone unreported.
The
group further stated that between May and August, seven times more
civilians were killed than in the preceding four months, while 100
civilians were killed in August alone.
It said that the deadliest attack came on 25 July,
when the armed group shot dead 40 people and abducted three others in
an ambush on an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno
State.
AI
added: ‘’Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed at least 81 people in
Nigeria since April, while 67 people have been abducted – mostly women
and girls – since the start of the year.
‘’There
have been two reports of raids on villages in August, in which Boko
Haram fighters rounded up and shot civilians, burned down homes and
stole from people’s houses, shops and markets,’’ it stated.
In
Cameroun, the global human rights group said that the deadly terrorist
group had killed at least 158 civilians since April, four times more
than in the preceding five months, adding that the recent spike in
casualties had been driven by increased suicide attacks, with 30 attacks
at more than one per week, carried out since the beginning of April.
The deadliest attack was said to have taken place in Waza on July 12,
when 16 civilians were killed and at least 34 injured after a young
girl was forced to carry and detonate a bomb in a crowded video game
centre.
The
town of Kolofata, in the Mayo-Sava district, has been especially
targeted with nine attacks since April. Mora, the second largest urban
centre in the Far North region, has also been hit three times. The group
averred that the displacement of Boko Haram fighters from the Sambisa
Forest in Nigeria to the Mandara Mountains in Cameroun, following
operations conducted by the Nigerian military, may explain some of the
increase in attacks in Cameroun.
‘’A
total of 2.3 million people have been displaced across the region. This
includes 1.6 million internally displaced people and refugees in
Nigeria and 303,000 in Cameroun. Another 374,000 are displaced in Chad
and Niger,’’ AI revealed.
It
stated further: ‘’More than seven million people across the region face
serious food shortages, including five million in Nigeria and 1.5
million in Cameroun. There are 515,000 children suffering from severe
acute malnutrition, more than 85% of them in Nigeria.
‘’The
recent increase in insecurity has made humanitarian operations
difficult, or even impossible, in some inaccessible areas of northeast
Nigeria,’’ it reported.
The
group advised governments across the Lake Chad region to increase their
efforts to protect the hundreds of thousands of civilians at grave risk
of being targeted by Boko Haram violence, abductions and abuses.
“Meanwhile,
the international community should also rapidly scale up its commitment
to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to the millions in the
region who need it,” the group appealed.
Amnesty
International has been documenting human rights abuses and serious
violations of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes
and crimes against humanity committed by Boko Haram since 2010.
It
has compiled and analysed media reports of Boko Haram attacks and
casualties, which demonstrate a sharp increase in activity since April
2017 compared to previous months and comparable periods in 2016. The
real numbers are likely to be higher, with some deaths unreported.
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