Baga Death Toll Rises; Senator Discovers 228 Fresh Graves, 4,000 Burnt Houses

Baga

Senator Maina Ma’aji Lawan, representing Borno North Senatorial District, declared that his two-day visit to the border town revealed 228 fresh graves, 4,000 houses leveled, contrary to earlier reports of 185 deaths and destruction of over 2,000 houses following a clash between Boko Haram gunmen and men of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTC) at Baga, Borno State.

Lawan made the “declaration and assessment” of the Baga carnage, Saturday.

According to him, despite the widely reported carnage and destruction of Baga, there was much more to the reports on the total number of people killed and houses destroyed in the fishing and commercial town.

The reality of the clash on ground, he disclosed, is very much higher than the 185 lives lost and the destruction of 2,000 houses, 62 vehicles and 284 motorcycles reported. Instead, the senator said: “During my two-day on-the-spot visit to Baga, what I saw was very frightening and sad to report and comment further, as many more lives and properties were destroyed in the two-day carnage. The houses leveled or torched run for a distance of three-four kilometers of township settlements.

“I drove through the charred remains and counted no fewer than 4,000 houses of innocent residents destroyed in the fight between the Boko Haram sect and soldiers of Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF).

baga_reuters

“The magnitude of the carnage has overwhelmed me, as the number of and level at which the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Red Cross (NRC), the JNL, Izala and other humanitarian agencies in Baga town are carrying out their humanitarian activities is grossly inadequate to meet the food, health and housing requirements of victims that are still sleeping in the open air. Even, NEMA, as at last Friday, had only two tents to cope with tens of hundreds of displaced victims.”

Lawan said the death toll was more than what was widely reported: “I personally visited all the four grave sites before arriving at the exact number of residents killed in the destruction of Baga town.

“At the Wayah graveyard, I counted 130 fresh graves, while at the Arewa cemetery, 60 people were buried by their relations. The Magumeri grave yard also gave me a total of 60 fresh graves. These bring to a total of 228 people massacred and buried in Baga by their surviving relations last week.

“Inside the town, the community leader furnished me with a total of eight graves in which some of the victims killed in the Tuesday and Wednesday clash between the Boko Haram insurgents and soldiers.”

Lawan therefore called on humanitarian agencies and philanthropists to act swiftly to “intervene and assist” the surviving Baga victims with food, shelter, medical services and drugs, and shelter by setting up more resettlement camps and water points, as against NEMA’s two tents.

12 COMMENTS

    • Derlington, i did’nt espect dat frm u, have sympathy, dont luk at it frm trbal or religion paspective, no mata what majority r innocent,it may fall down on u so sympathise wit dem & seek refuge ahead.

    • Derlington, i did’nt espect dat frm u, have sympathy, dont luk at it frm trbal or religion paspective, no mata what majority r innocent,it may fall down on u so sympathise wit dem & seek refuge ahead, So baba pertan in schul has escape ur memory.

  1. It is d man dat fetched fire woods wt ants dat av invited lizards to his compound……the villagers kno who d boko harams are. The same boko harams dat av killid over 2000 souls, I kno it ll cum to dat if not worse soon. Let d north b ready to bury much more ppl sooner or later except d northern elders call their blood sucking blood demon ( boko haram ) to order nd also tell buhari to his face dat enough is enough. I sympathize wt d families dat lost innocent souls. Wake up!

  2. hw many boko haram were killed in d clash. Whn 2 elephants battles d grass and d forest suffers. Y would pay 4 d sin dey committed nt. In d first place y will d village habour boko haram in dia custody, well he that fetchs an ant affected plant, invites d lizard 4 a banquet. All d same may dia soul rest in peace. But my question remains gaint of Africa wia r we heading 2 in d nxt 5yrs 4rm nw.

  3. Frank let me answer this on his behalf. When Udi people were killed did they behable to saparate those who kill the police men or not?
    Also samething happened in Benue state. How long are we going to face insincerity concerning BH insurgence. Me and u are just listerners and government is covering the real face of what hear them called BK.
    When I was in Army we put peace in face of many in other contries in Africam but anytime we have our own crisis we involve politics bcos we don’t care. I always regret living army bcos I believe this issue of boko haram is not as terrible as we feel it. But I wish one day the fact will become vivid and all those behind this will be bring to book in no distance future God’s willing