Total devastation: NGO reveals massive level of destruction in Baga (SATELLITE PHOTOS)

by Rachel Ogbu

Photo: NYTimes
Photo: NYTimes

On 16 and 17 April, 2013, a fight between Nigeria’s military and Islamic extremists was reported to have killed at least 185 people in a fishing community of Baga in Borno State.

The military had refuted the number saying it was more 36 than 185. Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye, the local commander, said they were not responsible for the civilian deaths because extremists had used civilians as human shields during the attack.

“It was around that mosque that our men were attacked, with several of them injured, and an officer killed,” the general said. “When we reinforced and returned to the scene, the terrorists came out with heavy firepower including rocket-propelled-grenade launchers,” he said.

They also claimed that Boko Haram extremists mounted a coordinated assault on soldiers using military-grade weaponry as civilians fled into bushes and “contrary to media speculation that hundreds of houses were burnt down, instead, it was the explosions from Boko Haram terrorists’” weapons that “triggered fire to about 30 thatched houses,” Edokpaye said.

A leader in Baga told Human Rights Watch that he had participated in the burial of 183 victims in separate graves within two cemeteries on April 18 and more were buried later but the military has held on to lower numbers of casualty saying these figures were “terribly inflated.”

April 22, Edokpaye released a statement saying that only 37 people were killed, 30 of them Boko Haram members, six civilians and one solider.

Senator Maina Lawan, the federal senator representing Baga, told Human Rights Watch, based on a two-day site visit on April 25 and 26, that some 220 people had been buried in three cemeteries, while six others had been buried in separate locations.

The combat lasted for hours, sending more people fleeing further into the desert surrounding the community on Lake Chad.

By Sunday, the destruction seen in the area was heart breaking with about 2000 homes, businesses and vehicles reported burned to the ground.

Since the attack, the military has come under fire from the international community, civil rights groups and Human Rights Watch for failing to protect the lives of innocent citizens. Kole Shettima, chairman of the Center for Democracy and Development, a research organisation in Abuja, said soldiers responded to the attack and civilians in the town paid the price, as they often do in northern Nigeria. The soldiers “opened fire, ransacked houses, and killed who they killed,” he said.

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State said the military was as much to blame as Boko Haram for the casualties. “I don’t want to entirely lay the blame on Boko Haram. They are both complicit in the crime. The duty of the military is to protect the lives and property of the people,” he told reporters.

Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch said: “The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.”

Human Rights Watch revealed satellite images showing massive destruction of civilian property from the military raid.

HRW reports:

Since the attack, the military has restricted journalists’ access to Baga, a remote fishing community on the shores of Lake Chad, 200 kilometers northeast of the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram has destroyed mobile telephone towers in the area, claiming that security services used mobile phones to track down its members, making communication particularly difficult for survivors of the attack.

Human Rights Watch interviewed seven residents of Baga who fled the town on the night of the devastation. Many survivors spent several nights hiding in the bush and expressed fear in describing what they saw, fearing military retaliation.

Some residents said that they saw soldiers in uniform kill residents and burn houses. A 27-year-old woman, who stayed in her house after the gunfire erupted, described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers went door-to-door looking for any men that remained in her neighborhood.

“I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying,” she said. “The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road the soldiers were beating other people.”

Another resident, a 32-year-old fisherman, believes soldiers killed his uncle, whose bad leg kept him from fleeing the town. He discovered his uncle’s badly beaten body after the attack.

“We had heard the soldiers say before [the attack] that since you people are not cooperating with us and are hiding your brothers, we will treat you as one of them,” the fisherman told Human Rights Watch. “I heard the soldiers say this. Everyone heard them say this. They were saying this in the open.”

Satellite images analyzed by Human Rights Watch indicate that damaged structures were likely caused by intense and widespread fires. Additional satellite data detected the presence of active fires in the southern part of the town on the night of April 16 and during the day of April 17, consistent with witness accounts and the location of identified building damages.

“The destruction and killings by soldiers in Baga are serious human rights violations,” Bekele said. “The government needs to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, regardless of rank.”

As reports of the Baga attack filtered out, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a “full-scale investigation into reports of high civilian casualties.” The Defence Headquarters in Abuja sent a military team to investigate the incident.

HRW Satellite images

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