Boko Haram Boasts Massacre, Captures More Girls
The Islamic militant group Boko Haram is boasting that it slaughtered 2,000 civilians in northern Nigeria.
The leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, just made the announcement in a video, taking responsibility for the Jan. 3 attack in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga.
"We are the ones who fought the people of Baga, and we have killed them with such a killing," Shekau says, according to a translation provided by SITE Intelligence Group.
Now comes yet another disturbing report that Boko Haram also kidnapped 500 women and children in that same attack.
The London Daily Mail says the jihadists released some of the older women but kept all the younger ones.
Kidnapping is becoming standard practice for Boko Haram, which gained international attention when it snatched 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Chibok in April of 2014.
At the time, concerned Americans responded with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign on Twitter.
But most of those girls are still being held captive or have been sold as brides. And some have escaped while others are believed to have been forced into becoming suicide bombers.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram's violence is spilling over into neighboring countries like Cameroon.
About 140 schools in Cameroon have now closed, and roughly 10,000 people there have fled the Nigerian border, seeking safety further inland.
One official said Tuesday a humanitarian food crisis looms because Boko Haram insurgents have looted food and livestock along the border.
In the latest example, the terrorist group attacked Mabass village in northern Cameroon Sunday, killing three people and kidnapping dozens.
Boko Haram has declared it is establishing an Islamic caliphate which will extend beyond Nigeria, much like the Islamic State has done in Iraq and Syria.
