Boko Haram May Have Killed 2,000 This Week

A Nigerian official said Thursday that Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group in Nigeria, may have killed up to 2,000 people in an attack this week. Musa Alhaji Bukar said to BBC that he thought that 2,000 people had been killed by the militant group during their attack Tuesday and Wednesday on the northeastern town of Baga.

Nigerian central government has said the body count is in the hundreds. Some experts say that the Nigerian government routinely underestimates the death toll, but also warn that getting an accurate count will be almost impossible.

Witnesses say that Boko Haram militants went door to door shooting families, and then placed IED's in the street to force people into areas where there were firing squads stationed. Afterwards the rebels set the towns on fire. Many who survived the attack were forced into Lake Chad and drowned.

This was the second attack of Baga and the surrounding villages in the past week. During the first attack, the Nigerian soldiers who were stationed at the multi-national base, ran away from the militants.

Boko Haram now has control over all border crossings in the region between Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. In a video, Abubakr Shekhau, called for assaults on Cameroon, which is run by a Christian government but has a large Muslim population.