Report says 30 civilians have been killed following a disciplinary attack by Nigeria’s military after opening fire and burning down buildings in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
The shootings came after a bomb explosion targeting the army had injured two soldiers, corpses have been found lying in the street with no weapons around them. About 50 homes and shops had also been leveled by the soldiers. Lt Col Sagir Musa in a BBC report says soldiers had not shot any civilians. On Sunday; the army said it killed 30 Boko Haram members in another north-eastern city, Damaturu.
Eyewitnesses in Maiduguri said soldiers began to indiscriminately open fire on residents and set fire to homes and businesses. The military went in with assault search and other weapons in retaliation for a bomb attack nearby on Monday morning that killed a lieutenant. A Maiduguri resident told the BBC that a tipper truck full of bodies had been driven to the hospital where the bodies were dumped there like bags of cement and he emphasis that when soldiers are killed, everyone is seen as an enemy. In order to be safe from the situation one need to pray you are as far as possible from the scene.
Maiduguri has been under the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, siege which wants Sharia law in Nigeria. The people are complaining of being stuck in the middle between the bombs of Boko Haram and the bullets of the army, Col Musa confirmed earlier on Monday that two soldiers had been injured in a bomb blast targeting an army patrol vehicle in Maiduguri. Since 2010, Attacks in central and northern Nigeria liable on Boko Haram have killed over 1,400 people with civilians paying a heavy price. For the past three years of Boko Haram violence related reports of the security forces arresting and killing local residents following militant attacks have been made on numerous occasions.
