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Boko Haram Attacks Island on Niger Side of Lake Chad
[AnNahar] Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... gunnies attacked an island on the Niger side of Lake Chad, with locals reporting heavy casualties among those who fled but no official confirmation of the corpse count. A private radio station in Niger said that two people died in a fire in the remote village on Sunday evening but one survivor spoken to by Agence La Belle France-Presse said the corpse count was higher. "A lot of people jumped into the lake to escape the attack. I think that a lot of people drowned, in particular women and kiddies," said one man, who escaped with his family in a boat. Abubakar Gamandi, the head of the fishermen's union in Borno state, northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , said he received phone calls from members telling him about the attack, which happened on Sunday. "No one knows how many people died in the attack but many residents fell in the lake and are believed to have drowned," he said. The attack began at about 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Sunday, the survivor and Gamandi said, both blaming the Islamist group, which has been waging an insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009. "We had just finished evening prayers when the attackers arrived in a speed boat. They started to fire on the village and throw explosives at our houses," said the man, who asked not to be named. Two humanitarian workers in the area confirmed the attack but did not have more details, while a local politician said that the Niger army was not present in the area. Gamandi said many of the people on the island came from Baga and nearby Doron-Baga on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad, in the far north of Borno state. Boko Haram attacked the towns on January 3 and is feared to have killed hundreds, if not more, in what could be the worst massacre of the six-year conflict. Thousands of residents fled as the rebels torched large parts of the town. Last week, the Nigerian Army said they had recaptured Baga and President  Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... visited to meet troops. Lake Chad is a strategic area where the borders of Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , Nigeria, Niger and Chad meet. All four countries are involved in a regional fight-back against the hard boys, which has seen the group strike out of its northeast Nigerian stronghold to attack Chad and Niger. Posted by: trailing wife 2015-03-03 |
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