Boko Haram Attack Village, Children Burnt Alive

In a gut-wrenching barbaric act by the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram took the lives of 86 innocent people as part of an assault in the village of Dalori in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, 30^th January.

One of the villagers claimed that the 86 people killed during the attack included children, who were burned alive to death.Two nearby camps housing 25,000 people who fled away, were also attacked. According to sources of Associated Press, there were three female suicide bombers who blew themselves up as part of the plan. The extremists firebombed the huts and the attack lasted for 4 hours. The chronological order of the actual event are still being investigated and verified.

"As they saw the flames of the fight, then they alerted us. I informed the soldiers ... and that's how they checked," Lawana Geti, head of a local vigilante group called Kondugua, said.

Mohammed Kanar, the area coordinator of Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, said 86 bodies, many of them charred and riddled with bullets, were collected by Sunday afternoon. Nigeria’s largest hospital, the State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri, is treating the 62 injured people. The hospital is located at a 10 km distance from Dalori.

One of the country’s prominent newspapers, ‘Vanguard’ reported that the assault came after claims by the government that Boko Haram militants no longer had the ability to carry out such major attacks other than through suicide bombings. In September 2015, Nigeria said that its military drove the extremists out of towns and villages in the region.

Boko Haram, which has been active since 2002, has claimed their allegiance to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Since its inception, Boko Haram has claimed the lives of 20,000 people and has displaced 2.3 million from their homes. In April 2014, group carried out mass abductions including the kidnapping of 276 school girls from Chibok, Nigeria.

Niger, Chad and Cameroon, all of with whom Nigeria shares border in the Lake Chad region, the area which is most frequently targeted by the Boko Haram, are part of a coalition along with Benin, to fight the group.

In a region so frequently showered with wars and battles, the sign of peace might just be in a better understanding of humanity. After all, how can justice be served to anyone by claiming innocent lives.