At least 86 people have been killed by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria on Saturday.
The attacks took place in the north-eastern part of the country, targeting around 25,000 refugees in camps and villages for hours. According to officials, 86 bodies have been discovered so far.
Officials say 62 other victims are being treated for burns.
“During the incident lives were lost while some people sustained injuries,” AFP quoted army spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka as saying in a statement.
The attacks in Dalori, which included explosions, burning and shooting, went on for roughly four hours, according to survivor Alamin Bakura’s statement to the Associated Press. He said a number of his family members were either injured or killed in the attacks.
Three female suicide bombers blew themselves up to kill several people. Survivors ran away to the neighbouring village of Gamori. Boko Haram, which literally means “Western education is forbidden,” is believed to have killed more people in Africa than Islamic State has in the Middle East. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015.
“There is a real bias against media coverage of terrorist attacks in Africa, and especially in Nigeria,” RT quotes assistant professor Max Abrahms from Northeastern University in Boston. “I think many people would be surprised to know how much killing power the main terrorist group Boko Haram has.”
According to the political science professor, Boko Haram tries to pretend it is an international group while it mostly operates locally. It also tries to show it is strongly connected to ISIS.
“But the truth is that different affiliates have stronger or weaker relations with IS central, [and] the Boko Haram affiliation is relatively detached, unlike the one in Libya, which is actually directed by the IS leadership in Syria,” Abrahms said.
The Nigeria-based extremist group has killed 20,000 people so far and driven 2.5 million from their home since 2009. The military drove most of the terrorists out of the north-eastern part of Nigeria in 2015. The group started attacking soft targets since then.
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