Boko Haram kills 48 fishermen in Chad

                           
Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members have killed no fewer that 48 freshmen at the Nigeria’s border with Chad, Agence France-Presse reports. This was made known by the head of the fish traders association on Sunday.

“Scores of Boko Haram fighters blocked a route linking Nigeria with Chad near the fishing village of Doron Baga on the shores of Lake Chad on Thursday and killed a group of 48 fish traders on their way to Chad to buy fish,” AFP quoted Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fish traders association, as saying.
It was gathered that the attackers set up a barricade at Dogon Fili, 15 kilometres from Doron Baga in Borno State, and stopped a convoy of fish vendors around midday, slaughtering some of them and drowning others in the lake.

“The Boko Haram gunmen slit the throats of some of the men and tied the hands and legs of the others before throwing them into the lake to drown,” Gamandi told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

It was unclear if the mission for the dastard attack was robbery or if there were other reasons for the killings.

Gamandi claimed the assailants killed all of their victims without using their guns.

“The attackers killed their victims silently without the use of the gun to avoid attracting attention from the multi-national troops,” he said.

Kaloma Zarami, a fish vendor in Maiduguri, said he learnt of the killings from other traders in Doron Baga.

Zarami said, “The news came to us late yesterday (Saturday) through some of our colleagues who came from Doron Baga to inform us of the incident because there is no telephone service in the area.

“We lost 48 people in the attack. Some were slaughtered and others were thrown into Lake Chad with their hands and legs tied and left to drown.”

A military officer in Maiduguri confirmed the attack to newsmen but said details were sketchy at the moment.

“We heard of the attack near Doron Baga but we don’t have any details because the area falls under the operational jurisdiction of the MNJTF,” the military officer said.