More than 50 people were killed on Sunday, 22 May, by militants in the Borno state of Nigeria, in the country’s northeastern trip around the border with Cameroon, says witnesses.
Nigeria’s northeast and Borno state, in particular, have been the centre of an insurgency that has been led by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram since 2009.
Millions of people have been displaced, and some 350,000 people have lost their lives due to attacks and the following humanitarian crisis, as per the United Nations (UN).
Over time, Boko Haram has separated with an active offshoot known as Islamic State West Africa Province, also claiming the responsibility for attacks in the country of West Africa.
Local residents blamed Boko Haram for the latest attacks. Army spokesperson Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not immediately reply to a request for a statement.
A local farmer, Harun Tom, stated, “We are all in pain over the slaying of our innocent people who were working on their farmland. We buried 50 individuals today in Rann. They were cleaning their farmlands ahead of the rainy season, while others went for firewood.”
A farmer, Agid Muhammad, who recently came back to Rann after residing in an internally displaced-people camp, described a scene of a massacre.
Muhammad stated that his uncle was also missing and further said, “A large number of Boko Haram on motorcycles armed with guns and machetes encircled our people who were working on their farms and held them hostages before killing them one by one.”
“They were tied with rope and then slaughtered. Many people aren’t accounted for as I am speaking to you.”
Nigeria has been facing such brutality and has been witnessing such crimes for a long period of time, but nothing has been done to stop these crimes or these militants.
