What really happened in Baga?
Scores of men, women and children were
killed in the Nigerian towns of Baga and Doron Baga on 3 January when
Boko Haram militants launched a fierce attack. The exact number of dead
remains unknown, but claims vary from 150 to 2,000 people killed. The
BBC met survivors at refugee camps in Chad in order to piece together a
picture of what happened that day.
Many inhabitants had already gone to pray when gunshots rang out on
Saturday, 3 January. The first raid started at about 05:45 local time
(04:45 GMT), just before dawn.
As
Boko Haram
fighters rushed through the west side of Baga, a group of determined
young men collected their “cutlasses” – or machetes – and knives to
defend their town. It was a rare success.
“We pushed them back, together with our soldiers,” said local man Harun Muhamad, 31.
The Islamist militants were forced to retreat into the bush.
“We all came out en masse to fight back,” recalled 20-year-old Dahiru
Abdullahi, adding that most fighters were wearing army uniforms of
different kinds.
“Some also had black coats on and turbans,” he said. Such headwear is
common in this desert area, where insurgents often use them to cover
their faces.
After the militants’ retreat, there was a lull in the fighting and some relief in the town, but it did not last long.
A few hours later, Boko Haram combatants stormed the town again.
Their ranks had swollen to a terrifying column of pick-up trucks and
motorcycles.
“They came back out from the bush with around 20 vehicles,” said Dahiru Abdullahi.
Between 10 and 15 armed men jumped from each car. It remains
impossible to know how many fighters took part in the assault, refugees
spoke of “hundreds”. The local men were also out-gunned.
“They opened fire, they kept shooting at us,” said Dahiru Abdullahi.
“Because we were trying to defend ourselves with machetes, we had to
leave.”
Harun Muhamad also said the second wave of Boko Haram militants was “too many”, forcing everyone to run for their lives.
The survivors described how the armed intruders yelled at the young men who had earlier brandished locally made weapons.
“Be brave, men, why don’t you fight us?” they shouted.
Faced with the advancing militants, the Nigerian soldiers, too, gave
up fighting and fled. Witnesses say many threw or dropped their weapons
on the ground as they went, leaving them for others to retrieve.
“Vigilantes picked up these weapons and fired back, but they found
themselves overwhelmed by the force against them and [they] ran as
well,” said Saratu Garba, 20, mother of a two-year-old boy.
As the armed group progressed through the town, witnesses described
pandemonium. People fled in all directions; many thinking that they
could seek refuge in the nearby fishing town of Doron Baga, on the shore
of Lake Chad.
By midday, the assault had turned into a hunt-to-kill as Boko Haram fighters chased people down the road.
“They shot people dead, but they also killed with their cars, running
over those who were in their way,” said Saratu Garba, who was separated
from her husband in the turmoil.
“There were too many corpses to count them.”
Saratu Garba and other refugees all described seeing women, children and men falling to the ground or lying dead.
The streets of Doron Baga were soon littered with bodies. As people
reached the shores of Lake Chad, Boko Haram militants closed in on them.
“They kept firing at us even when we jumped on boats,” said Dahiru Abdullahi. “One man next to me was shot.”
Some rowed just far enough to escape the chaos. They hid on nearby
islands and many waited long hours hoping that the militants would
leave. They didn’t. As night fell, the sound of gunfire could still be
heard.
Several refugees recalled seeing fighters setting houses on fire.
From their dugout canoes and boats, they could see plumes of smoke
rising into the sky.
Families scattered in a desperate flight. Many were separated as they ran for their lives.
Some escaped through the bush and, days later, reached sanctuary in
other Nigerian towns or cities. About 5,000 fled to the Borno state
capital Maidiguri – 162km (100 miles) from Baga, according to Medecins
Sans Frontieres. Others travelled north and crossed into neighbouring
Niger.
Nearly 15,000 have now arrived in Chad, according to the UN refugee
agency (UNHCR), waiting for assistance on lake islands, where we met
them.
Harun Muhamad was separated from his wife and baby. “I don’t know whether they are alive or dead,” he said.
Dahiru Abdullahi, meanwhile, is waiting for news of his younger brother.
“Him and nine other men who were with us, they have disappeared,” he said.
Dahiru Abdullahi is amongst more than 2,500 refugees who have been
relocated by the UNHCR from one of the lake islands to the site of
“Dar-es-Salaam” in the dusty outskirts of Baga-Sola town.
Those from Baga and Doron Baga who made it to the Chad side of the lake are without any of their belongings.
“Apart from these clothes I’m wearing, I wasn’t able to take
anything. I got out like this,” says Hadija Umar, a mother of three,
whose husband was killed in the attack.
On Ngouboua island, big tents have been erected by aid agencies.
Refugees are living in cramped conditions, sleeping on the sandy floor
in the cold of night.
It remains impossible to know exactly how many people were killed
during the attack. Human rights group Amnesty International has said
that up to 2,000 lost their lives, but we have found no evidence to back
such a claim.
Eyewitness accounts suggest several hundred are likely to have died, but the real figure will probably never be known.
The government of Nigeria seems unable to confirm any death toll. The
army rejected Amnesty’s count, saying “the number of people who lost
their lives during the attack has so far not exceeded about 150″.
However, Sambo Dasuki, National Security Adviser to the president,
said Nigeria was “going with Amnesty” figures in the absence of
“independent confirmation”.
Satellite images of Baga
and Doron Baga taken after the attacks show the extent of the damage –
with an estimated 3,700 structures damaged or destroyed, according to
Amnesty International.
In an online video, a man called Abi Mos’aab Albernawi – presented as
the “official spokesman” for Boko Haram – said they attacked Baga
because it was “important in terms of commercial and military value to
the Nigerian government”.
Baga was most likely targeted because of the nearby military base,
headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force that includes
Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Together with Doron Baga, it is also a
commercial and fishing hub for Borno state and important for
international trade as it sits on the border with Chad.
Niger withdrew its troops in November 2014, and
Mr Dasuki said “only the Nigerian contingent was left there when it was attacked”.
Mr Dasuki also spelled out a list of equipment that was seized by the
Islamist militants, including “six of our APCs – or armoured vehicles –
all of them with 4,000 rounds of ammunition inside” and artillery guns.
He said this dispelled criticism that suggested the Nigerian forces
were ill-equipped: “Anybody who says he is not well-armed is not telling
the truth.” He said the soldiers who ran away were “cowards”.
Although the figures for the Baga dead have not been verified,
thousands have died at the hands of Boko Haram over the last six years.
Maps show how the spread of Boko Haram’s activities have gradually
concentrated more on the north-east regions of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe –
where a state of emergency was declared in 2013.
They also show the greater intensity of attacks in 2014.
