Nigeria’s Military Refuse To Help Civilians, More Than 200 Killed By Boko Haram This Week

Boko Haram reportedly killed at least 200 civilians from three communities this week, and even though the military were forewarned by desperate civilians about the impending attacks, they reportedly refused to act, according to various reports.

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Sunday to Tuesday

Even though part of the mass killings reportedly occurred on Monday, with Borno State senator Mohammed Ali Ndume providing confirmation of the sordid events on Thursday, news of the violence did not make it to the provincial capital of Maiduguri due to a number of extenuating factors, including poor or non-existent connections and deadly roads.

Using their effective tactic that they have used before on other villages, Boko Haram are said to have tricked civilians by donning military uniforms from Sunday to Tuesday and then attacking six villages of Gwoza area of Borno State.

Wednesday

In the village of Bardari on Wednesday, terrorists brought people together under the guise that they were preachers who were peddling the good Word. Once a large enough group had assembled, the executors fired in to the crowd, reportedly not ceasing their fire until everyone had perished, according to the BBC.

 

Thursday

Acting as vampires who never sleep but feed off of the blood of the people, the terrorists also attacked Adamawa state by burning down administrative buildings and a church, killing two people, and firing on security forces.

A People Abandoned

What is most troubling about all of these reports, though, is the reported response of the military: Gwoza residents reportedly begged them to come to their area once they had been warned of an impending attack, but they refused.

The Guardian reports:

“A community leader who witnessed the killings on Monday said residents of the Gwoza local government district in Borno state had pleaded for the military to send soldiers to protect the area after they heard that militants were about to attack, but help did not arrive.”

No wonder the women and youth of Attagara took mattters in to their own hands last week and staged an aggressive defensive, lynching Boko Haram leaders indiscriminately.

And while their actions are both courageous and admirable, the fact that Boko Haram hit the village once again this week shows that there is only so much civilians can be expected to do.

Now 750,000 Nigerians are said to have been displaced — with 16 towns being abandoned along the road to Gwoza alone — and the emboldened militants are said to be laying claim to abandoned villages such as these by erecting “black flags with white Arabic lettering.”

Last week, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared on the nation’s Democracy Day that he was declaring “total war” on the terrorists, and about two weeks before, the United States, France, China, the European Union, and the United Kingdom gallantly entered the nation in order to facilitate the government’s efforts to #BringBackOurGirls, but with intermittent murder and mayhem — and the inconvenient truth that nearly 300 girls still remain at large more than 50 days later — why does it seem that no progress is being made at all?

RELATED: UPDATE: Abuja Police Remove #BringBackOurGirls Protest Ban