Iman Chairman condemns Islamist atrocities in Nigeria
Jueves, 20 Febrero 2014
Islamist militants are on the rise in northern Nigeria
Islamists Murder 99 in Attack on Nigeria Village
CBN NEWS
Islamic terrorists, using bombs and heavy guns, killed at least 99 people in an attack on a Christian village of Wada Chakawa in northeast Nigeria.
Villagers say the attackers stormed a Roman Catholic Church during Sunday morning service.
Spraying the congregation with bullets and setting off bombs, the terrorists killed dozens inside the church and held others hostage during a five-hour siege.
They also burned down hundreds of homes.
Officials say it's one of the highest death tolls in attacks by extremists.
The militant Boko Horam has not taken credit for the attack, but it's been waging a war against the government in the north.
Death toll from Islamist attack in northeast Nigeria doubles to 98
REUTERS
Gunmen from Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram sect killed 98 people in the northeastern town of Bama on Wednesday, residents there said after burying their folk, more than double the figure given by police a day earlier.
Gunmen stormed the town in the early hours of Wednesday, firing on a school, shooting or burning to death dozens of people and trashing the palace of a traditional ruler of one of West Africa's oldest Islamic kingdoms. Police had initially put the death toll at 47.
The area of the attack was a wasteland of burnt buildings that still smelt faintly of charred flesh, according to a Reuters journalist who toured the scene with local officials.
Women and children could be seen gathering what few possessions they had from the ashen wrecks of their houses, many of them carrying them off on their heads as they trekked out to find somewhere else to shelter.
"We recovered 98 bodies that have already been buried since the attack," Akura Satomi, a pro-government civilian militia leader responsible for security in the town, told Reuters.
That made 200 killed this week in just two attacks. The insurgents, fighting for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria and posing the main threat to Africa's top oil producer, seem to have adopted a tactic of maximum civilian casualties.
On Sunday the Islamists killed 106 people in the village of Igze, one of their deadliest assaults so far. That prompted the Borno state governor to say the rebels were better armed and motivated than government forces, a charge the military denied.
The United States condemned that attack as "senseless".
President Goodluck Jonathan ordered extra troops into northeast Nigeria last May to crush Boko Haram, which wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in the largely Muslim north.
But the offensive, backed by air power, has so far failed to crush the rebellion. The government's co-opting of poorly armed civilian militia has also spurred massive Boko Haram reprisals against civilians.
Condemning the attack, Iman Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am appalled by the recent attacks committed by Boko Haram and the Islamist militants in Nigeria, the escalation of extremist violence in recent months is of paramount concern.
These people, murdered for their faith, are innocent victims of the extremist rhetoric being propagated
by radical Clerics and hate preachers who hide behind technology and the internet.
The international community must deal with this issue swiftly and robustly, the discourse of hate that stems from extremist preachers is the lifeblood of Islamist groups, how many more people have to die at the hands of these radical Islamists before action is taken?
More needs to be done to combat extremism in Nigeria before the situation deteriorates, we cannot and must not allow Islamists to entrench themselves any further.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time."
