A government committee set up by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, discovered hundreds of decomposed bodies in Damasak, northern Borno State at the weekend.
The governor set up the committee to assess the level of destruction in towns and villages recovered from the insurgents and also rebuild, fumigate and provide essential services to make the settlements safe for displaced residents to return.
The decomposed bodies littered the streets while many others were discovered inside houses, shallow graves and rivers that have dried up.
The committee spent the weekend recovering and burying remains of the victims under the watchful eyes of Chadian troops who sacked the insurgents from Damasak some weeks ago, Daily Trust reports.
The decomposed bodies were suspected to be those of people killed by Boko Haram insurgents as they fled the town following an onslaught by Chadian forces to recapture the town.
According to the Principal Information Officer of the local government, Babagana Mustapha, they had made videos and taken pictures of the atrocities committed by the insurgents in Damasak.
“Based on the mandate given to us, we went to Damasak on Thursday after passing through parts of Yobe State and Diffa in Niger Republic. We were ushered into the town by Chadian forces led by a General who has a Nigerien officer as his second in command.
“Some troops escorted us to various places and we saw the level at which human beings were massacred. We saw corpses in Dutse, in Gashigar and in Damasak…they were many.
“We were also informed that hundreds of decomposed bodies of Boko Haram insurgents were in the bushes. But the troops from the neighbouring countries said they had nothing to do with them; they said it was the responsibility of Nigerian government to bury the bodies. But they assured us that we could feel free and go back to our dwellings whenever we wanted,” Mustapha said.
Also speaking, Senator-elect Borno North Senatorial District, Alhaji Abukakar Kyari, said: “I have full knowledge of what the committee did in Damasak and the fact is that there was nowhere that bodies of over 500 children was discovered.
“Of course, many people have been killed but nobody or group brought all the dead bodies to one place.
“What really happened was that following the liberation of Damasak by Chadian and Nigerien forces and a visit by a committee that we set up, we again sent our people there on Saturday (25th April) and they worked assiduously in recovering many dead bodies.
“I cannot tell you the precise number of dead bodies but they are many. The people that went to Damasak divided themselves into various groups, recovered the bodies and buried them in various graves.”
In the past 2 months, troops have liberated most of the towns and villages in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, which were under the control of Boko Haram.
About a month ago, about 500 people were reportedly kidnapped in Damasak.
Damasak was liberated by Nigerien and Chadian forces in the second week of March. A few days after the liberation, the Chadian military high command took some journalists to Damasak to see things for themselves and interviewed some of the survivors.
No comments:
Post a Comment