Hundreds of people have been found dead
in the northeast town of Damasak, in
Borno apparently victims of Boko Haram
insurgents, residents and officials said on
Monday.
“Dead bodies were found in houses,
streets and many more in the Damasak
River which has dried up,” said local man
Kaumi Kusur, adding the victims were
buried in 20 mass graves at the weekend.
Mohammed Sadiq, another local who
helped in the burials on Saturday, put the
death toll at more than 400 but the Borno
state government did not state a precise
figure, giving a toll of “hundreds”.
Troops from Chad and Niger retook
Damasak from Boko Haram on March 9 as
part of a regional offensive to combat the
militants, who captured the town in
November last year.
A Chadian security source said at the time
that some 200 rebel fighters were killed in
the offensive as well as 10 soldiers.
On March 20, Chadian army spokesman
Colonel Azem Bermandoa Agouna said
about 100 bodies were found in a mass
grave under a bridge just outside
Damasak. Some had been decapitated
while others shot.
Agouna estimated that the massacre
probably occurred in January.
In the latest discovery, Sadiq said the
bodies had been covered by sand from the
encroaching desert.
“We were mobilised by the state authorities
to bury them and we did it accordingly.
The bodies include those of women and
children as well as agile men,” he added.
Kusur said the bodies discovered from
Thursday last week “far outnumbered”
those found in March when the town was
liberated.
“We brought all of them and though the
bodies have decomposed, we gave them
(a) proper burial in more than 20 mass
graves that can be identified anytime the
need arises,” he said.
The discovery came as thousands of
people displaced by the violence sought to
return from temporary camps to Damasak,
which is near Lake Chad in the far north of
restive Borno state.
Some 1.5 million people have been forced
to flee their homes since the insurgency
began in 2009.
Claimed successes against the militants by
Nigeria and its partners Chad, Niger and
Cameroon have increased talk of the
displaced returning home.
Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima set
up a committee to look at ways to rebuild
some of the towns recovered but members
of one of the sub-committees returned
with news of the grim find.
Their spokesman Baba Gana Mustapha,
said: “The level of devastation in Damasak
is high. We have seen hundreds of people
that were massacred by Boko Haram.”
