The Islamic terrorists who kidnapped at least 276 Nigerian schoolgirls massacred hundreds of men, women and children in their latest bloody attack on civilians, authorities said Wednesday.
The extremists swarmed the northeastern town of Gamboru Ngala in Borno state Monday night, spraying gunfire on shoppers at a crowded market, torching homes and gunning down residents fleeing the flames.
Borno state official Mohammed Bulama said the fatalities “are high — hundreds — but we are still awaiting details from the military authorities.”
Nigerian Senator Ahmed Zannah said the attack lasted about 12 hours and began in the evening when the market is most crowded because temperatures in the semi-desert region are cooler then.
The escalation of violence by Boko Haram rebels comes as Nigerian authorities with help from the US, UK and other countries desperately worked to track down the missing girls.
The US help includes intelligence, investigative and hostage negotiation experts.
“Their purpose there is to coordinate with the Nigerian government and assess what assistance we can provide them,” said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “As of now we have no plans to conduct a broader military operation.”
Warren said Wednesday that the Americans won’t be laying the groundwork for a rescue by US special forces.
US spy satellites are also being used in the hunt for the missing girls, who were snatched April 14 from a boarding school in Chibok, not far from the site of the latest bloodbath in the jihadi group’s 5-year uprising.
The terror groups’ depraved leader, Abubakar Shekau, vowed to sell the girls as slaves or brides – claiming that Allah would approved of the atrocity.
Some frustrated parents were searching for their missing girls themselves, CNN reported.
“When I went into the school compound, nobody [could] ever stand it,” said one father, who carried a bow and arrow with him for protection while looking for his daughter.
“You will see their dresses cut out all over. And the hostel and dormitory, everything was bombed into ashes. This man told us they have gone with our daughters. We couldn’t believe him.”
The man scoffed at the government’s claim that they were conducting an exhaustive search.
“We have never seen any military man there. Had it been military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them,” he said.
The US has deemed Boko Haram a terror organization and put a $7 million bounty on the Shekau’s head.
Meanwhile, a hashtag on Twitter – BringBackOurGirls – has drawn international attention to the kidnappings.
In cities as far apart as th Nigerian capital of Abuja, Washington, Los Angeles, Dublin and London, demonstrators wore red T-shirts to draw attention to the girls’ plight and demand their release.
More than 1,500 people – Muslims and Christians – have died in attacks so far this year.
The insurgents say Western influences are corrupting and they want to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million of whom half are Christian, mainly in the south.
Boko Haram translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language, and in recent years, the group has stepped up its attacks, bombing schools, churches and mosques.
President Goodluck Jonathan has been criticized for waiting three weeks before publicly acknowledge the kidnappings.
But a spokesman defended the effort, saying the military had already searched 150 different locations looking for the victims.
“We’ve done a lot, but we are not talking about it. We’re not Americans. We’re not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something,” spokesman Doyin Okupe said.