Boko Haram kidnapped 185 people and killed 35 in Gumburi, Nigeria on Sunday night. The village is twelve miles from Chibok, where the radical Islamic group kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls last April.
The Miami Herald reports the terrorist group kidnapped “young women, children and members of a civilian defense group fighting Boko Haram.” Details of the massacre only surfaced on Thursday, because the group “destroyed communication towers” and people walked out of there to reach other villages to avoid Boko Haram. Teenager Aji Ibrahim escaped the attack.
“No doubt they were Boko Haram members because they were chanting ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is great) while shooting at people and torching houses,” he said.
Maina Chibok traveled to Gumburi after the attack.
“They gathered the people, shot dead over 30 people and took away more than 100 women and children in two open-top trucks,” said Chibok. “They also burnt down a government medical centre, houses and shops.”
It took Umar Ari four days to reach Maiduguri, where he told officials the militants attacked Gumburi from two directions and destroyed half the town. Modu Kalli saw the terrorists use machine guns and “poured gasoline on houses before setting them on fire.” Kalli lost everything.
Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden.” They targeted schools at first, but spread out to include everyone as they attempt to form an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The group formed over four years ago but came into the international spotlight in April, when they kidnapped 300 schoolgirls. The case spawned a social media hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. First Lady Michelle Obama tweeted a picture of her holding a piece of paper with the hashtag. On May 25, President Barack Obama included the schoolgirls in his commencement address at West Point.
“Tragically, no American security operation can eradicate the threat posed by an extremist group like Boko Haram, the group that kidnapped those girls, and that’s why we have to focus not just on rescuing those girls right away, but also on supporting Nigerian efforts to educate its youth,” he said.
But as of publication, 219 girls are still missing. America, Britain, and France sent troops to help find the girls without any luck. Instead, Boko Haram mocked the hashtag and told the world the majority of the girls were married off.