Islamic State beheads 11 Christian hostages
The Islamic State West Africa Province, which broke away from Boko Haram in 2016, has claimed responsibility for the execution. The latter was apparently carried out on Christmas Day, as a "message to Christians all over the world". In ten years, 36,000 people have died in West Africa in connection with Islamist terrorism.
Lagos (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has released a video claiming the killing of 11 Christians in Nigeria.
The terrorist group says the execution is to “avenge” the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed in a US raid in Syria last October.
The video, which was released on 26 December by the IS news agency Amaq, says that the victims were “captured in the past few weeks” but gives no indication as to their identity.
The ISWAP broke away from the jihadi group Boko Haram in 2016.
The execution seems to have been carried out on Christmas Day as “a message to Christians all over the world”.
Jihadis have recently conducted several violent actions in north-eastern Nigeria. On Christmas Eve, seven people were killed in a Christian village near Chibok and a teenager was abducted.
On 23 December, two civilians were killed in the north-eastern region of Borno and 13 were wounded in an attack on a military post. The day before, six Nigerian soldiers were killed in an attack on a military convoy.
On 24 December, the United Nations condemned the “increasing practice by armed groups to set up checkpoints targeting civilians” in the northeast of Nigeria.
The decade-long armed jihadi uprising in this part of Nigeria has killed already 36,000 people and displaced around two million, United Nations data indicate.
Boko Haram and other jihadi groups have spread their violence to neighbouring Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and Togo.
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