They say the militants in pick-up trucks arrived in the town of Dapchi, Yobe state, on Monday evening, shooting and setting off explosives.

Alerted by the noise, staff and students were able to flee.

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 girls from a school in the north-eastern town of Chibok.

Residents and civilian militia in Dapchi say they believe the jihadists had planned to kidnap schoolgirls in their town too.

After finding the school empty, the militants looted the building.

They say that Nigeria’s security forces – backed by military jets – later repelled the attack.

Last September, a group of more than 100 of the Chibok girls were reunited with their families at a party in the capital Abuja.

Most of the group were released in May as part of a controversial prisoner swap deal with the Nigerian government that saw five Boko Haram commanders released.

But more than 100 schoolgirls are still being held by Boko Haram, and their whereabouts are unknown.

Boko Haram militants have been fighting a long insurgency in their quest for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. The conflict is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people.

The Chibok girls represent a fraction of the women captured by the militant group, which has kidnapped thousands during its eight-year insurgency in northern Nigeria.

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Source: BBC

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Amnesty International said in a report that the suspects, including women and children, were beaten, water-boarded and forced into stress positions.

The cases allegedly happened between 2013 and 2017, and dozens of detainees died as a result, it added.

Cameroon’s government has not commented. Boko Haram frequently carries out attacks in the country.

The Islamist group, based in neighbouring Nigeria, has killed more than 1,500 civilians in Cameroon since 2014, and abducted many others, Amnesty said.

Victims described a least 24 methods of torture at more than 20 different sites, the report said.

In one of those places, it said, there was the presence of US and French military personnel. There was no evidence that foreign forces were involved, but Amnesty urged both countries to investigate the allegations.

The report added that people suspected of supporting the militants were often being detained without evidence.

Boko Haram

• Founded in 2002 in Nigeria, initially focused on opposing Western-style education. Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language
• Launched military operations in 2009
• Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, hundreds abducted
• Joined so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS’s “West African province”
• Seized large area in north-east Nigeria, where it declared caliphate
• Regional force has now retaken most of the captured territory

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Source: BBC

The post Boko Haram suspects tortured in Cameroon, Amnesty says appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.