Nigeria: Boko Haram down but far from over ⁰

The Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group has invaded a village in Nigeria, killing at least ten people and abducting 13 others before burning down the entire village. The terrorists riding on motorcycles opened fire on residents in Kubrrivu village near the northeast town of Chibok at dawn on Saturday, locals said on Sunday.

Residents said the militants attacked the village as residents slept, adding they burnt down the whole village after looting food supplies and livestock and taking away women and children. A community elder said seven women, five boys and a girl were abducted by the violent group which has pledged allegiance to Daesh terrorists in the Middle East.

The terrorist group first raided the village in 2014, during which the villagers were forced to flee. The residents returned and reconstructed their homes one year later after Nigerian troops retook swathes of territory from the terrorists. Boko Haram has been active in Nigeria since 2002, but its attacks had not been significant until 2010, when the gunmen managed to free 700 inmates from a prison in Bauchi and raid a mosque in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram in Nigeria: A timeline of events

• September 2010: In a prison break in Bauchi, militants free 700 inmates.

• May-December 2011: The group intensifies terror attacks by raiding government officials, police officers, students and religious leaders.

• January, 20, 2012: Terrorists carry out a series of coordinated attacks in Nigeria’s largest city of Kano, killing almost 200 people

• April 2012: They attack a church in in Kaduna, killing at least 38 people.

• June 2012: Militants attack three churches in Kaduna, killing at least 19 people.

•  August 2012: Gunmen raid a church in Kogi State, killing 19 people.

• December, 2012: More than 40 people are killed in separate attacks in the country.

• April 2013: Boko Haram insurgency kills more than 200 people in the city of Baga in the northeastern state of Borno.

• May 2013: At least 200 heavily armed militants raid the northeastern town of Bama, killing dozens of people and freeing 100 militants from a prison. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in the northeast.

• May 2013: Nigeria announces a military offensive in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe against the terrorists.

• June 2013: In a series of attacks, Boko Harm raids several churches in different states and kills more than 50 people.

• September 17, 2013: Gunmen kill 143 people by dressing in military uniforms and staging a fake checkpoint near Benisheik in Borno.

• November 13, 2013: The US State Department announces Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.

• January 2014: Gunmen kill at least 45 people in a raid on a market in Kawuri in Borno.

• April 14, 2014: Militants abduct more than 250 teenage girls from a boarding school in Chibok. Some of the girls, however, manage to escape.

• May 13, 2014: Terrorists raid three villages in Borno. Villagers fight and kill more than 200 militants.

• May 20, 2014: Twin bomb blasts kill 118 people at a market in the city of Jos.

• May 21, 2014: The US declares that it has sent 80 troops to Chad to help search for the kidnapped schoolgirls.

• May 2014: The United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions against Boko Haram.

• June 3,4, 2014: Boko Haram militants kill hundreds of people in Borno. Some sources put the death toll at 500.

• June 2014: Militants hold a village in Borno hostage for four days. They kidnap over 60 women and children and kill 30 men.

• October 16, 2014: The Nigerian government says it has reached a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram under which the militants pledged to release schoolgirls.

• November 1, 2014: In a video, Boko Haram’s leader denies the government’s claim of a ceasefire.

• March 7, 2015:  Boko Haram pledges allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

• April 2015: Mass graves of at least 400 men and women are found in northeastern Nigeria.

• April 28-30, 2015: Nigerian forces destroy Boko Haram camps and rescue some 450 women and girls in an operation in Sambisa Forest.

• July 1, 2015: Gunmen storm three villages in Borno, killing at least 145 people.

• September 3, 2015: At least 30 people are killed and 145 wounded after Boko Haram attacks a crowded market in Kerawa, Cameroon and a hospital near a Cameroonian military camp.

• February 2016: Mlitants raid two villages in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 30 people. In another attack, two female bombers kill 58 people at a Nigerian refugee camp for villagers fleeing the insurgency.

• April 14, 2016: Boko Haram releases a video purportedly showing the girls abducted from Chibok in 2014.

In the April footage, one of the militants claimed that some of the girls were still alive and the others had been killed in airstrikes by the Nigerian air force. He said a number of the girls, “about 40 of them”, had also been married to the militants.

Last year, Amnesty International said at least 2,000 women and girls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria since the beginning of 2014, and many of them forced into sexual slavery or combat.

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