Satellite images reveal extent of Boko Haram carnage

Satellite images released by human rights group Amnesty International have revealed the scale of the destruction caused by last week’s attack on two Nigerian towns by Boko Haram fighters. Before and after images of two neighbouring towns in northern Nigeria, Baga and Doro Gowon, taken on January 2 and 7 respectively, show the devastating effect of the militant attacks that left over 3,700 structures damaged or completely destroyed. 

"These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days," Nigerian Amnesty researcher Daniel Eyre said. "Of all Boko Haram assaults analysed by Amnesty International, this is the largest and most destructive yet. It represents a deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and schools are now burnt out ruins.”

Amnesty said that interviews with witnesses, local government officials and human rights activists suggest hundreds of Nigerian civilians were shot. Last week, they noted reports of as many as 2,000 dead. However, the Nigerian military has cited a figure of 150 dead, including slain Boko Haram fighters. Security analysts have said that it may be impossible to determine exactly how many were killed, as the town and surrounding area are still in rebel control, making access impossible. 

"They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and killing,” a Nigerian man in his 50s told Amnesty.

"I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked," a Nigerian woman told Amnesty.
Medical charity group Doctors Without Borders said on Tuesday that its team in the Borno State capital of Maiduguri, was providing assistance to 5,000 survivors of the attack.

An estimated 3,700 structures were damaged or completely destroyed - 620 in Baga and more than 3,100 in Doron Baga, and Amnesty has warned that the number could be even higher. 

The Boko Haram group drew international condemnation when its fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in the northeastern Chibok town last year. Dozens of those girls escaped but 219 remain missing.