1,224 killed by Boko Haram since May, 2013 – UN

Attacks by the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, have claimed more than 1,200 lives since May, 2013, when a state of emergency was declared in three North-East states, the United Nations said on Monday.

The toll includes civilians, military personnel as well insurgents killed by security forces repelling attacks, a report by the AFP said.

The Federal Government had placed Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states under emergency rule since May 14, following waves of violence by the insurgents and thousands of troops backed by air support were deployed to the area to crush the four-year-old uprising.

The UN toll is the first independent fatality figure to have emerged since the military operation was launched.

“Some 1,224 people have been killed in Boko Haram related attacks since May,” the UN humanitarian agency said in a statement.

But spokeswoman for UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Choice Okoro, told AFP that the UN figure did not include insurgents killed during targeted military operations.

Defence officials have in recent months released a series of statements claiming scores of rebel deaths in operations on Boko Haram strongholds.

The details of those statements have been difficult to verify amid a communication blackout in much of the northeast and the military has been widely accused of downplaying fatalities among civilians and its own personnel.

“The humanitarian situation in northeast Nigeria has been increasingly worrisome over the course of 2013,” the UN said, adding that there have been 48 separate “Boko Haram related” attacks in the region since emergency rule was declared.

Among the most gruesome was a pre-dawn massacre at an agricultural college in Yobe State, during which gunmen entered dormitories under the cover of darkness and shot dead 40 students in their sleep.

OCHA noted that “information on the situation is scarce,” with figures of those displaced by the conflict and those who have fled to neighbouring states “hard to gauge.”

The military had switched off the mobile network across the region, apparently to block Islamists from coordinating attacks.

Officially, mobile service has been restored in all three states, but communication remains difficult in Borno, the epicentre of the insurgency and where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago.