Boko Haram ‘burned children alive’ in Nigeria village attack: The Belfast Telegraph

At least 86 bodies had been collected by January 31 in the attacks the previous day on Dalori Village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees, where charred and bullet-ridden corpses littered the streets, survivors and soldiers told the AP.

Alamin Bakura, another survivor, told the Associated Press that the shooting, burning and explosions from three suicide bombers lasted for almost four hours.

Militants reportedly burned and shot to death civilians, while three female suicide bombers blew themselves up among people fleeing to the neighboring Gamori village.

Local residents and an unidentified aid worker had said on Sunday that some 50 people were killed in the attack. Maiduguri is the military headquarters of the fight to combat and defeat Boko Haram.

Still, the shocking details of Saturday’s assault barely reverberated among many of Nigeria’s 184 million residents, who have become inured to frequent terrorist attacks. Its extremists in Africa are said to have killed more people that IS, to which they pledged allegiance in 2015.

The bombers in the northeastern town from which Boko Haram abducted scores of schoolgirls were men wearing hijabs with explosives strapped to their backs to look like babies, Nigeria’s military said Friday.

Nigeria’s army said the gunmen attacked Dalori just outside the northern city of Maiduguri late on Saturday, burning down the village and sending residents fleeing into the bush.

Anka said the assailants also tried to penetrate the Dalori camp, but they were repelled by the troops.

A mortuary attendant said victims of the incident were conveyed to the hospital by officials of the Red Cross, the State Emergency Management Agency and some policemen.

The Boko Haram jihadi extremists have been concentrating their terrorist efforts at soft targets, attempting to spread fear and terror through attacking relatively helpless villages and killing women and children, while looting and stealing or killing livestock.

It was earlier reported that at least 65 people lost their lives in what is believed to be one of the worst attacks by Boko Haram insurgents so far this year.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticized by some in the country’s media, including the Premium Times, for suggesting in December that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated”.

Boko Haram has also been blamed for deadly bomb attacks in neighbouring Chad on Sunday.

Thousands of people have been killed by Boko Haram and millions have been displaced as they flee the area.