Hundreds of people from four villages near the devastated Nigerian town of Baga, have been forced to flee after a warning from Boko Haram militants, witnesses and community leaders said on Tuesday.
News of the exodus from Kekenu, Budur, Yoyo and Mile 90 villages came as Niger hosted a meeting on how to fight the rebels as concern mounted at the threat to regional security.
Abubakar Gamandi, head of the Borno State fishermen’s union, said residents from the affected villages told him that Boko Haram fighters had visited “and asked people to leave -- or else”.
One women who fled Baga to the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, on Monday, confirmed that she joined the crowds fleeing the four villages.
“When we came to Mile 90, we found it almost empty with some remaining residents staying behind to pick up personal belongings,” said Ma’agana Butari.
Screengrab taken on October 2, 2014, from a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist Abubakar Shekau
“We also found Budur, Kekenu and Yoyo deserted and we caught up with some of the residents moving towards Monguno,” the 32-year-old mother of five said by telephone from Maiduguri
The villages lie some 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Baga and although there was no confirmation that Boko Haram had moved in, it will likely raise fears that the group plans to push south.
Nigerian Tribune
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