Abuja, March 25 (IANS) Boko Haram militants killed at least 75 people in a town in Nigeria’s Borno state, reported Xinhua on Wednesday, citing a survivor of the massacre.
The survivor, who narrowly escaped death, said that the militants took away more than 100 men of the Gwoza town in the state, of which 75 were killed, while the fate of around 25 men was reported to be hanging in the balance.
Many women were captured by the militants, who have been in control of the Nigeria-Cameroon border area for about six months, said the survivor.
The militants reportedly kept the women in different locations across the town.
“We escaped by sheer luck. We fled into the bush and spent almost four days before we got to a town where we were taken to the neighbouring Yola city (in the Adamawa state, some 70 km away),” the survivor said.
“Somebody accommodated us, fed us and even took us to the hospital. The good samaritan who took care of us used to be a top government official. We spent more than a week there before we were brought to Maiduguri (capital of the Borno state),” he added.
Boko Haram seized the Gwoza town in September 2014, after carrying out several attacks in the area. It also declared an Islamic caliphate in the town.
The Boko Haram, whose name translated from the local dialect means “Western education is sina¿, has been a major security threat to Nigeria since 2009 and had also threatened Nigeria’s neighbouring countries, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Earlier this month, it declared its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
