Suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants have reportedly killed about 150 more people in attacks in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, the BBC reports.
More than 20 people were killed last month when a Boko Haram bomb exploded during a celebration that marked the success of a military operation against the Islamist group. In addition to these deaths:
- On June 30, in two villages near the town of Monguno, militants shot 48 men after they had observed the Maghrib prayer, which follows the breaking of the daily fast during the month of Ramadan.
- On July 1, in the village of Kukawa, near Lake Chad, militants killed 97 people, including women and children.
The BBC reported that a resident of one of the two villages in the June 30 attack said militants had opened fire on worshipers, who were mostly men and young children. “They spared nobody,” the news agency quoted him as saying. “In fact, while some of the terrorists waited and set most of the corpses on fire, others proceeded to houses and shot indiscriminately at women who were preparing food.”
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language, was founded in 2002 in opposition to Western-style education. Military operations began in 2009, mostly in the northeastern part of Nigeria, and the group has reportedly joined the Islamist state (ISIS).
The militant organization made a declaration of a caliphate in the region, claiming their leaders had descended from the line of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632.
But even though Nigerian military forces claim to have weakened Boko Haram and rescued several abducted women and children,, many of the 219 schoolgirls taken in the spring of 2014 remain missing, and Boko Haram is still considered a threat to world security.