They had just returned to their homes after living for two years in a camp for displaced people. Hundreds of civilians were taken hostage in northeastern Nigeria by suspected ISIS fighters in West Africa (Iswap), local and security sources said on Wednesday.
The terrorists "took control of Kukawa (in the Lake Chad region) on Tuesday evening," said Babakura Kolo, head of a civilian militia. There, they took hostage hundreds of people who had just returned to town after two years away from their homes because of the violence that ravaged the Lake Chad region and in particular Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria. .
A local chief who was among them, and who managed to escape, said that they had returned in early August in the hope of finally being able to cultivate their land, "but immediately ended up in the hands of the insurgents". "We do not know what they will do with them, but we hope that they will not do them any harm," said this community leader, who prefers to remain anonymous.
Two million people far from home
A security source confirmed the attack to AFP and said fighter jets had been deployed from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, to "deal with the situation".
Kukawa is located near the large town of Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, an area controlled by the Iswap group, which split from Boko Haram in 2016. The group, affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, leads from many attacks especially against the Nigerian army, and killed hundreds or even thousands of soldiers.
It also controls medium-sized towns and villages, and thousands of civilians live under its control. More than 36,000 people have been killed since 2009 in the violence in Nigeria and more than two million people still cannot return to their homes.
