The leader of Boko Haram boasted of the attacks on Nigerian civilians last week.
Boko Haram’s leader posted a YouTube video on Tuesday taking responsibility for the attacks on Baga last week. Abubakar Shekau claimed that his actions were according to his beliefs.
“We killed the people of Baga. We indeed killed them, as our Lord instructed us in His Book,” said Shekau in the video. “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger.”
Shekau is reading from a script in Arabic and has an assault rifle resting across his chest in the video. Masked militants in the background are holding automatic weapons.
Last week, Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 civilians in northeastern Nigeria. Survivors of the attacks on the towns of Baga and Doron Baga described the scene as a massacre. Bodies were strewn across the bushes and streets, according to witnesses. The Islamic extremists destroyed thousands of buildings and homes in the attack, which Amnesty International calls the worst attack in the Boko Haram campaign to create an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria. Amnesty produced several satellite images showing the extent of the damage from last week’s attacks.
Shekau boasts in the video, showing the weapons and ammunition he acquired in the attacks last week. The Boko Haram leader also mocks the leaders of Nigeria and surrounding countries in Africa.
“Kings of Africa, you are late,” he says, “I challenge you to attack me even now. I'm ready.”
Goodluck Jonathan, the President of Nigeria, is currently campaigning for reelection. The national elections will take place next month, but many areas in northeastern Nigeria will not be able to participate because of Boko Haram’s influence in the area.
“This is just the beginning of the killings,” says the militant in the video. “What you've just witnessed is a tip of the iceberg. More deaths are coming.”
Despite the horrible advances made by Boko Haram recently, Cameroonian forces managed to rescue a German prisoner who was held by the extremists. Robert Nitsch Eberhard, a German teacher who was kidnapped in July, issued a statement on Wednesday. Eberhard will receive immediate medical treatment before he is flown back to Germany.
