More than eleven soldiers and scores of civilians were reportedly killed when the Boko Haram sect attacked the army base in Baga, Borno State on Saturday, January 3, 2015.
This was disclosed by a security source and witnesses on Monday, January 5, 2014.
The Islamists attacked the northeastern town of Baga and the barracks on its outskirts on Saturday, potentially providing a launchpad for more attacks in the country and other neighbouring nations, according to Punch reports.
The attack prompted soldiers and civilians to desert the town.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed report also said that 18 female soldiers attached to the base were feared dead as they had not been found since the encounter.
Witnesses who escaped to the bush said they ran past the bodies of soldiers and civilians along the way.
“I was hiding on a tree top since that Saturday night until this morning at 3 a.m.,” Abubakar Usman, a Baga resident told Reuters by telephone.
“Women in a nearby house brought us water and food … We snuck out and on our way, we saw lots of dead soldiers and 10 bodies of women.”
“They are still there and many people (civilians) mostly women, children and aged one are still trapped in the town,” a man who works between the city of Maiduguri and Baga said.
Another witness, simply identified as Yusuf, said he tripped and fell as he tried to escape from the town and when he got up, he saw about 20 bodies scattered along the ground where he was.
