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Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Boko Haram launched a grisly
attack on a Nigerian village in an area that troops had been using as a
base in the search for hundreds of schoolgirls abducted by the militant
group, witnesses told CNN on Wednesday.
The hourslong assault on
Gamboru Ngala that left at least 150 people dead, some of whom were
burned alive, is the latest in a series of brazen attacks and abductions
by Boko Haram, raising concern about whether the Nigerian government
can retake control of the region from the entrenched terror group.
Word of the attack
follows news that President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been under fire
for his handling of the mass abduction, accepted U.S., British and
Chinese offers of assistance to find the schoolgirls, officials with
those governments said.
It's unclear what impact
the latest attack could have on the international response to Nigeria's
fight with Boko Haram, which so far has concentrated on helping the
government rescue 276 schoolgirls abducted on April 14.
The assault on the
village came after military troops deployed to the area were called to
the border area near Chad, where reports -- later determined to be false
-- surfaced that the schoolgirls had been found with Boko Haram
militants, witnesses and local officials said.
CNN cannot independently confirm the report, and attempts Wednesday to contact Nigeria's military for comment were unsuccessful.
Indiscriminate killing
Witnesses described a
well-coordinated attack that began shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time
Monday at a busy outdoor market in Gamboru Ngala.
Wearing military uniforms, the militants arrived with three armored personnel carriers, they said.
They shouted "Allahu
Akbar" -- "God is great" -- and opened up on the market, firing
rocket-propelled grenades and tossing improvised explosive devices,
witnesses said.
Some marketgoers tried
to take shelter in shops only to be burned alive when the gunmen set
fire to a number of the businesses, the witnesses said.
A few Nigerian soldiers
who had been left behind at the village could not hold off the assault
and were forced to flee, they said. Many sought safe haven in nearby
Cameroon, they said.
The fighters also
attacked the police station during the 12-hour assault, initially facing
stiff resistance. They eventually used explosives to blow the roof off
the building, witnesses said. Fourteen police officers were found dead
inside, they said.
The final death toll could be closer to 300, Nigerian Sen. Ahmed Zanna told CNN.
Monday's bloody attack
by Boko Haram militants, some of whom U.S. officials say have been
trained by al Qaeda, follows a pattern of seeking revenge against
anybody who is perceived to have provided aid to the Nigerian
government.
International aid taking shape
News of the attack came
as U.S. officials pressed ahead with plans to provide Nigeria with law
enforcement assistance and military consultations, State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"Obviously, this is in
the interest of the Nigerian government to accept every aspect of our
assistance," she told reporters during a briefing Wednesday. "They
conveyed that they were willing to do that yesterday and it continues to
be in their interest to be as cooperative as possible."
U.S. officials will
establish a joint coordination cell at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja where
the goal will be to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage
negotiation expertise, Psaki said. The cell will include U.S. military
personnel, who are expected to arrive in Nigeria in the coming days, she
said.
The Pentagon has started
planning for how it can help Nigeria, a senior U.S. military official
told CNN. It's unlikely at this point that U.S. troops would be involved
in operations, the officials said.
Britain is sending a
small team of experts to complement the U.S. team, a spokesman for Prime
Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. The spokesman didn't specify the
nature of the team's expertise.
On behalf of China, Premier Li Keqiang offered satellite and intelligence services to aid in the search.
Meanwhile, Nigerian
authorities offered a reward of about $310,000 on Wednesday for
information leading to the rescue of the girls.
"While calling on the
general public to be part of the solution to the present security
challenge, the Police High Command also reassures all citizens that any
information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost
confidentiality," the Nigeria Police Force said in a statement.
According to accounts,
armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at an all-girls
school in Chibok, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into
trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest
bordering Cameroon.
The reward offer comes
amid international outcry over the mass kidnapping in mid-April. The
#BringBackOurGirls campaign initially began on Twitter. It quickly
spread, with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend in
major cities around the world to demand action.
Defending the response
Nigeria's President has
been under enormous international pressure to step up efforts to rescue
the girls after come after waiting three weeks to publicly acknowledge
the kidnappings.
His administration,
however, is defending its response -- even as details emerged this about
a second mass kidnapping. At least eight girls between the ages of 12
and 15 were snatched Sunday night from the village of Warabe by Boko
Haram, villagers said.
"The President and the
government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world
think," presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe said, adding that helicopters
and airplanes have searched for the girls in 250 locations. More
troops, he said, are on the way.
Despite the flurry of
activity, the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram
scoffed at the Nigerian government's response.
"We have never seen any
military man there," said the father, who is not being identified for
fear of reprisals by the government or Boko Haram.
"Had it been military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them."
Members of the U.S.
Congress called for action, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
called the abductions "abominable" and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani
children's rights activist shot in the head by the Taliban, spoke out,
too.
"The girls in Nigeria
are my sisters and it is my responsibility that I speak up for my
sisters," Yousafzai told CNN's "Amanpour."
The U.S. first lady,
Michelle Obama, was among the latest high-profile figures to take to
Twitter about the girls' plight, tweeting a photo of herself holding a
sign that read: #BringBackOurGirls.
"Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families," she said in the post.
'I abducted your girls'
Boko Haram translates to
"Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, and the group
has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law
across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority
Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
The United States has
branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty
on the group's elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau.
A man claiming to be
Shekau appeared in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The
video was first obtained Monday by Agence-France Presse.
"I abducted your girls. I
will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said. "There is a market
for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I
will sell women. I sell women."
More than 450,000 people, including celebrities and lawmakers, to date have signed a change.org petition
that calls upon the world to act to save the girls. The petition calls
on Jonathan and the government "to ensure all schools are safe places to
learn, protected from attack."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/07/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/index.html?hpt=iaf_c1
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