Boko Haram attacks force over 11,000 flee Nigeria in 10 days

GENEVA: Over 11,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled Nigeria and taken shelter in neighbouring Chad in the last ten days after a new wave of brutal attacks by Boko Haram militants in the northeastern part of the country, the UN said today.

The Islamist group attacked the town of Baga on January 3, and razed it and at least 16 surrounding settlements, feared to be the worst massacre since Boko Haram's deadly insurgency began in 2009.

The UN refugee agency said that some 11,320 people had arrived in neighbouring Chad after the attack and 60 per cent of them are women and children, including 84 unaccompanied children.

About 2,000 people are stranded on the island of Kangala in Lake Chad, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said, adding that efforts are on to take them to the mainland.

Though the exact figures of the dead civilians are unknown, according to the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, an eyewitness has stated that he was constantly tripping on bodies while fleeing.

Boko Haram, which aims to establish an Islamic caliphate in religiously-mixed Nigeria, has been systematically targeting civilians in the northeastern state since January 3.

Since Boko Haram's insurgency began, some 135,000 people have fled the restive northeast of country and at least 850,000 have been displaced inside the region.

A girl reportedly as young as 10 years was used as a human bomb for the killings at the marketplace in Maidugiri.