2,000 dead after renewed attack by Boko Haram on Nigerian town

Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram have attacked the northeastern town of Baga for the second time in a week, leaving bodies littering the streets, according to an official.
Unconfirmed estimates by victims’ relatives put the death toll from violence in and around Baga on Thursday and on January 3rd as high as 2,000, said Musa Bukar, chairman of local government for the Kukawa district, which includes Baga.
The dead are “littered on the streets and surrounding bushes”, said Mr Bukar, speaking from a camp in the city of Maiduguri that is sheltering people who have fled the attacks. On January 3rd, Boko Haram captured the headquarters of a multinational military force in Baga set up to combat the insurgency.
In October, Nigerian authorities said they had agreed to a ceasefire with the group, which has killed thousands in its attempts to impose Islamic law on the country. Since then, violence in the the north has continued unabated.
On Wednesday a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, threatened Cameroon’s president Paul Biya in a video posted on YouTube. Boko Haram, whose name translates loosely as “western education is a sin,” has been fighting in Africa’s biggest oil producer since 2009.
Nigeria’s Islamic leader, the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, said that Muslims and Christians must combine to end the Islamist insurgency. He echoed the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, the second highest Islamic authority in the country, who has called on the north’s residents to defend themselves against Boko Haram.

“As Muslims, we must all stand and counter this violence that has dented the image of Islam,” he said in the southern town of Auchi. “What is happening to our brothers in the northern parts of the country is bad and we must come together to find an end to this insurgency.”

source:Sun News