NIGERIA
A Terrible Choice
The militant Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a weekend attack that killed scores of rice farmers in Nigeria’s northern Borno state, the Nigerian-based Guardian newspaper reported.
On Tuesday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau confirmed that the insurgent group was responsible for the killings in Koshebe village on Saturday, as well as the murder of 22 farmers a month earlier. Ten women remain missing from the village in Saturday’s attack.
Shekau said that the recent massacre was in retaliation for villagers disarming one fighter and handing him over to authorities last week.
The farmers took action because Boko Haram fighters often force villagers to pay ‘taxes’ by taking their livestock or crops, the Washington Post reported.
Borno state, internationally known for the kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls in Chibok by Boko Haram in 2014, has been plagued by violence and insecurity since the rise of the militant group in 2002. Aligned with Islamic State since 2015, the militant group has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more in parts of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
In Borno State, the group’s base, governor Babagana Zulum said that residents are facing desperate choices.
“If they stay at home, they may be killed by starvation,” he said. “If they go out to their farmlands and risk getting killed by the insurgents.”
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