Shocking satellite images reveal true devastation of Boko Haram massacre in Nigeria

DISTURBING satellite images show the destruction caused by Boko Haram militants who are feared to have slaughtered thousands in their deadliest attack yet.

DISTURBING satellite images show the destruction caused by Boko Haram fighters who slaughtered up to 2,500 people in the terror group’s deadliest attack yet.

The images, released by Amnesty International, show the neighbouring Nigerian towns of Baga and Doron Baga before and after the Islamic militants carried out their horrific attacks, leaving over thousands of homes and businesses damaged or completely destroyed.

“These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days,” said the group’s Nigeria researcher, Daniel Eyre.

Before ... a satellite image taken on January 1 of the town of Doro Baga shows densely packed houses and businesses. Picture: Copyright DigitalGlobe/Amnesty International

More than 3,700 structures were wiped out — 620 in Baga and more than 3,100 in Doron Baga, Amnesty said but added that the number could be higher.

Local officials have said Baga and at least 16 surrounding settlements were burnt to the ground and at least 20,000 people fled.

After ... an image taken on January 7 shows almost all of the buildings have been razed. Picture: Copyright DigitalGlobe/Amnesty International

Amnesty has also revealed more horrific details about the group’s deadly attack, claiming one woman was shot dead while she gave birth.

The human rights group said one witness to the assault on Baga told them the woman was shot by indiscriminate fire that also cut down small children.

“Half of the baby boy (was) out and she died like this,” the unnamed witness was quoted as saying.

Horrific ... this image shows over 630 structures damaged or destroyed in the southern part of Baga, Nigeria. Picture: Copyright DigitalGlobe/Amnesty International

Amnesty said this week that hundreds of people, if not more, may have been killed in the attack, which began on January 3 and is thought to have targeted civilian vigilantes helping the military.

“They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and killing,” a man in his fifties was quoted as saying.

Another woman added: “I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked.” The testimony chimes with claims from local officials that huge numbers were killed and that of witnesses spoken to by AFP, who described seeing decomposing bodies littering the streets.

Uncertain future ... children displaced after attacks by Boko Haram play in a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria. Picture: AP

One man who escaped from Baga after hiding for three days said he was “stepping on bodies” for five kilometres as he fled through the bush.

Nigeria’s military, which often downplays death tolls, said this week that 150 people died, dismissing as “sensational” claims that 2,000 may have lost their lives.

Security analysts have said that it may be impossible to know exactly how many were killed, with the town and surrounding area still in rebel control and access impossible.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said on Tuesday that its team in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, was providing assistance to 5,000 survivors of the attack.

Laid to waste ... the Islamic extremists have obliterated the village of Baga. Picture: AP

The UN refugee agency has said that more than 11,300 Nigerian refugees have fled into neighbouring Chad.

Eyre said the eye-witnesses and images reinforced the view that the attack was Boko Haram’s “largest and most destructive” in its fight to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.

The statement added: “The deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of their property by Boko Haram are war crimes and crimes against humanity and must be duly investigated.”

Some 300 women were said to have been rounded up and detained at a school, witnesses told Amnesty, adding that older women, mothers and children were released after four days but younger women kept.

The Baga attack came before presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria next month and an upsurge in violence apparently designed to undermine the legitimacy of the vote.

On Saturday, 19 people were killed when explosives strapped to a young girl said to be as young as 10 detonated at a crowded market in Maiduguri.

Four people were also killed when two female suicide bombers hit another market in the commercial capital of neighbouring Yobe State, Potiskum, on Sunday.

Originally published as Shocking satellite images reveal true devastation of Boko Haram massacre in Nigeria