by Hauwa Gambo

The Associated Press has confirmed that Nigerian soldiers today killed at least 30 civilians in the northeaster city of Maiduguri.

The soldiers were retaliating following the killing of one of their officers, a lieutenant.

According to the report, “The attack came from soldiers attached to a special military unit on guard in Maiduguri, the spiritual home of the sect known as Boko Haram, in an effort to supposedly protect its citizens from the violence gripping the city. The killings likely will further antagonize a population already alienated by checkpoints, security force harassment and the threat of being killed by soldiers who are targets for the sect’s increasingly bloody guerrilla attacks.”