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Boko Haram burns kids alive in Nigeria: Witness

<p>The Nigerian Military <a href="https://twitter.com/DefenceInfoNG/status/593130219973804032" target="_blank">announced Tuesday</a> it rescued almost 300 women and girls from Boko Haram during a military operation in the Sambisa Forest. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACLDj7PSphA" target="_blank">Nigerian Armed Forces</a>)</p><p>But the Nigerian military said the&nbsp;rescued women are not the same schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram last year, sparking the international campaign Bring Back Our Girls.&nbsp;</p><p>How exactly another 300 people can be rescued when about 200 are still missing is hard&nbsp;to imagine, without understanding that the Chibok girls are just a few of thousands of missing people in Nigeria.</p><p>A report from <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/1360/2015/en/" target="_blank">Amnesty International</a>&nbsp;found that since the beginning of last year, more than 2,000 women and children have been abducted by Boko Haram. Many are forced into sexual slavery or trained to fight.</p><p><strong>&quot;I went on one operation to my own village,&quot;</strong>&nbsp;Aisha, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwskRNFCAN8" target="_blank">told Amnesty International</a> through a translator.</p><p>And the problem didn&#39;t just start in 2014. In the first half of 2013, 26% of all kidnapping attempts worldwide happened in Nigeria, <a href="http://www.nyainternational.com/" target="_blank">according to NYA</a>, a London-based crime statistics organization.</p><p>And between 2009 and 2013, Boko Haram&nbsp;kidnapped at least 500 women, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WsA0JAistA" target="_blank">according to Human Rights Watch</a>, although there could be more because the organization says&nbsp;there was a stigma associated with reporting these incidents.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>&quot;There was a culture of silence and a certain taboo that had been around the issue,&quot;</strong> said Mausi Segun, a Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch.</p><p>The Nigerian military said it is now <a href="https://twitter.com/DefenceInfoNG/status/593131069282590720" target="_blank">individually screening</a> each of the rescued women to find out who they are.</p>
Posted at 10:54 AM, Jan 31, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-31 13:54:14-05

A survivor hidden in a tree says he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and listened to the screams of children burning to death in the latest attack by Nigeria' s homegrown Islamic extremists.

Witnesses say scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds litter the streets from Saturday night's attack on Dalori village just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast.

They say the insurgents ravaged the settlement for four hours. Then, three female suicide bombers blew up among people who were fleeing.

One man survived by staying up a tree until soldiers arrived Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Nigeria's 6-year Islamic uprising has killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

Associated Press 2016
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