(Washington Post) Terrence McCoy - In August, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced the establishment of his "Islamic Caliphate," quickly taking over Borno State in northeast Nigeria except for one town called Baga, which held out on the western shore of Lake Chad, aided by a multinational military base manned by troops from Niger to Chad. Then heavily armed Boko Haram men attacked and the soldiers put up a scant fight before abandoning their base and leaving residents defenseless. Early reports on Thursday said hundreds were killed in Baga. Musa Alhaji Bukar, a senior government official in Borno, said Boko Haram killed more than 2,000 people. More were said to have drowned in Lake Chad while attempting to swim to a nearby island. One man who escaped with his family told Agence France-Presse he had to navigate through "many dead bodies on the ground" and that the "whole town was on fire."
2015-01-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive