Off the wire
• Japanese firm develops thinnest switches for smartphones  • British inventor heads to China with rare timepiece invention  • Canadian duo lead pairs while China's Pang/Tong shine at Figure Skating worlds  • Full Text: Distorting history is unacceptable  • Lufthansa promises to continue set safety as top priority  • U.S. durable goods orders down in February  • 17 killed in clashes with IS militants in Iraq  • Senior Ukrainian officials arrested on corruption charges  • Yemeni FM calls for urgent Arab military intervention to thwart Houthi rebels  • Botswana's Montsho racing against time to appeal ban from athletics  
You are here: 　 Home

2nd LD Writethru: 75 killed in Boko Haram attack in northern Nigeria town

Xinhua, March 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

At least 75 people were slaughtered in one of Boko Haram's recent attacks in Gwoza town of Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, a survivor told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Many old and young women were also seized by the Boko Haram militants, who have been in control of the Nigeria-Cameroon border community for some six months, said the survivor named Mairo Mohammad.

Mohammad escaped death by the whiskers as Boko Haram members slit throats of men and kept more women in different locations across the town.

The survivor, now in custody of government, said the militants moved about more than 100 men of Gwoza town, out of which 75 men were slaughtered. The fate of some 25 men or more were still hanging in the balance as of the time the survivor and few lucky escapees fled the militant's den and traveled several kilometers, through thick bushes, before finding their way to the city.

"We escaped by sheer luck. We fled into the bush and spent almost four days before we got to a town where we were taken to the neighboring Yola city (capital of northeast Adamawa State), some 70 km away.

"Somebody accommodated us, fed us and even took us to the hospital. The good Samaritan who took care of us used to be a top government official. We spent more than a week there before we were brought to Maiduguri," Mohammad said.

Boko Haram seized Gwoza in September 2014, after carrying out several attacks on communities in the area. It also declared an Islamic caliphate in the town.

Last week, the Nigerian military said it had listed Gwoza as one of the territories yet to be reclaimed from the stronghold of Boko Haram which is seeking to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law in the constitution of the African most populous country.

A senior security official, who was not authorized to speak to the media on the latest development, said the militants might have killed more people than the number disclosed by the survivor, adding Boko Haram has embarked on slitting the throats of civilians in Gwoza after the military recaptured Bama, the second largest town in Borno State, located some 50 km away from the state capital. Endi