According to a security source, a regional official, and local fishermen, Boko Haram terrorists have killed Nigerian fishermen in the Niger side of Lake Chad, and kidnapped some of them.
Since 2009, a 13-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths and two million additional displacements.
The murder of the fisherman this week serves as a stark reminder of how pervasive the violence has become in the neighboring nations of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, particularly on the vital Lake Chad islands where insurgents have established notorious camps.
As punishment for violating a command to leave the area, fighters picked up dozens of fishermen from Kwatar Kaoulaha island in the Diffa region on Sunday into Monday, killing some of them and holding others captive.
“Many fishermen were killed and others taken hostage by Boko Haram fighters loyal to Baakura Buduma for failing to leave the area as ordered,” fisherman Kallah Sani said, referring to a local Boko Haram faction chief.
Sani was unable to give an exact death toll, but those who managed to flee told him there were numerous fisherman on the island at the time of the attack.
Sani was one of the 300 or so fisherman who complied with the one-hour notice to leave, handing up their catch and other belongings to the insurgents.
“They told us that they would take all our possessions as booty since our government has seized their money,” he told reporters.
Boko Haram had on Friday ordered the fishermen, who were mostly from northwest Nigeria, to vacate the area and leave possessions as booty for the jihadists, said a second fisherman, Anas Ibrahim.
“They (Boko Haram) came in two speedboats and ordered us to leave the island and not to take anything but the clothes we had on us,” Ibrahim told newsmen.
“The insurgents returned on Sunday and killed those they found, destroying their fishing boats to prevent them from escaping,” he said.