Baga
•Borno laments lack of financial assistance from FG, others
• Kwankwaso: I’ll declare presidential ambition at the right time
By: Michael Olugbode
The controversy over the destruction and death left in the trail of the April 16 clash between multinational troops and Boko Haram insurgents in Baga, a border town in Borno State, raged on Wednesday with fresh information supplied by the Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW, in a report released in Johannesburg, South Africa, said its investigations showed that 183 people were killed, contrary to the claims by the military, which also investigated the incident and has maintained that 36 persons plus one soldier died in the battle.
The organisation, which cited a community leader as its source, also said its analysis of satellite images of Baga, before and after the clash, showed that 2,275 buildings, majority of which were likely residences, were razed by fire with another 125 severely damaged.
Its report was released on the day Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, lamented that the federal government, other states and organisations have left the state government alone to bear the financial burden of the insecurity in the state.
HRW, in its report, called on the federal government to thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations that soldiers carried out widespread destruction and killing in Baga and urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the incident.
Already, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has signified its intention to probe the incident, an act which President Goodluck Jonathan expressed support for on Tuesday while receiving preliminary reports on the Baga killings from the Defence Headquarters and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
In its report, HRW said Baga residents told the group that soldiers ransacked the town after the Boko Haram militants attacked a military patrol, killing a soldier.
“Community leaders said immediately after the attack, they counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies. Satellite images of the town analysed by Human Rights Watch corroborate these accounts and identify 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority likely residences, with another 125 severely damaged,” it said.
Since the attack, the military has restricted journalists’ access to Baga, a remote fishing community on the shores of Lake Chad, which is far away from Maiduguri, the state capital.
“The group interviewed seven residents of Baga who fled the town on the night of the devastation. Many survivors spent several nights hiding in the bush and expressed fear in describing what they saw, fearing military retaliation.
“Residents recalled hearing some explosions as well as gunfire on the night of the attack. Many fled the town. One resident, a 42-year-old-fisherman, told Human Rights Watch that while he was fleeing, he saw two men in civilian clothes, whom he assumed were Boko Haram members because they were not in uniform, running while firing assault rifles.
“Residents said as they were fleeing the heavy gunfire, they saw bodies in the streets and in front of houses.
Some residents said they saw soldiers in uniform kill residents and burn houses.
“A 27-year-old woman, who stayed in her house after the gunfire erupted, described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers went from door-to-door looking for any man that remained in her neighbourhood.
“She said: ‘I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying.
‘The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road, the soldiers were beating other people.’
“Another resident, a 32-year-old fisherman, believed that soldiers killed his uncle, whose bad leg kept him from fleeing the town. He discovered his uncle’s badly beaten body after the attack.
“He said: ‘We had heard the soldiers say before (the attack) that since you people are not cooperating with us and are hiding your brothers, we will treat you as one of them. I heard the soldiers say this. Everyone heard them say this. They were saying this in the open’,” the fisherman was quoted by HRW as stating in the report.
However, the group’s report acknowledged the conflicting accounts as to how many people were killed in the attack, adding that a community leader whom it claimed participated in the burial of victims told the group that 183 people were buried on April 18 in individual graves in two cemeteries and other victims were also later buried.
HRW also quoted the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) Commander, Brig-Gen. Austin Edokpayi’s account that only 37 people, comprising 30 Boko Haram members, one soldier and six civilians died.
The group, however, said its investigation did not show how the fires were started as none of the residents it interviewed saw how the fires started on the night of April 16.
It quoted two residents who returned to the town on April 17 as saying that they saw soldiers in military vehicles setting fire to houses.
“I saw a group of soldiers throw explosive devices into houses,” one of the residents, a farmer, recalled to HRW.
“They would throw (the explosive) and then fire would come out of it. I saw them do this to about 10 houses,” the report stated.
The report explained that satellite images analysed by HRW showed that the damaged structures were likely caused by intense and widespread fires.
“Additional satellite data detected the presence of active fires in the southern part of the town on the night of April 16 and during the day of April 17, consistent with witness accounts and the location of identified building damage.
“Because of the number of buildings destroyed by fire as well as their distribution across large sections of the town, Human Rights Watch believes that such fires were intentionally set and not inadvertently sparked by the detonation of rocket-propelled grenades or improvised explosive devices.
“Such weapons could not ignite fires on such a wide scale, nor could they set fire to non-attached structures. Small arms and light weapons do not contain the amount of explosive or incendiary material to produce such scale of damage,” the report said.
Commenting on the report, Africa Director at HRW, Daniel Bekele, said: “The Nigerian military has a duty to protect itself and the population from Boko Haram attacks, but the evidence indicates that it engaged more in destruction than in protection.
“The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.
“The destruction and killings by soldiers in Baga are serious human rights violations. The government needs to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, regardless of rank.”
The group urged the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, which in 2010 opened a “preliminary examination” of the situation in Nigeria, to widen its probe to include the Baga killings.
The ICC had indicated that crimes committed by Boko Haram members might constitute crimes against humanity and members of the Nigerian security forces might also have committed serious human rights violations in their anti-terror fight.
However, ruminating on the effects of the insurgency on the state, the governor said that since the onset of the terror attacks, the state government has been left alone to shoulder the financial cost of the anti-terror war.
Shettima, while receiving a donation of N20 million from Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, said he was emotionally moved by Kwankwaso’s first-of-its kind assistance.
He said: “Since the beginning of this problem, we have never received a dime from anywhere. They have all left us to our fate; but whether we swim or sink, let me assure you that Borno will bounce back.”
Meanwhile, Kwankwaso cleared the air over his rumoured presidential ambition, as he told journalists in Maiduguri that he would be declaring at the right time.
When quizzed if he was nursing a presidential ambition in 2015, he said: “For now, we are working around the clock to ensure peace and stability in our state, and security in the entire region.
“But I want to assure Nigerians that as a team player, when the time comes, I will make my intention known.”
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