Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram ‘kill 48 fishermen’

BOKO Haram gunmen killed 48 fish vendors in Nigeria"s restive Boo State, near the border with Chad, the head of the fish traders association told AFP on Sunday.

"Scores of Boko Haram fighters blocked a route linking Nigeria with Chad near the fishing village of Doron Baga on the shores of Lake Chad on Thursday and killed a group of 48 fish traders on their way to Chad to buy fish,” Abubakar Gamandi said.

The insurgents set up a barricade at Dogon Fili, 15km from Doron Baga, and stopped a convoy of fish vendors, slaughtering some of them and drowning others in the lake, he said.

"The Boko Haram gunmen slit the throats of some of the men and tied the hands and legs of the others before throwing them into the lake to drown,” Mr Gamandi told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri, the Boo state capital.

Terrorists ... a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows leader Abubakar Shekau. Boko Haram gunmen killed 48 fish vendors in Nigeria, slitting their throats and drowning them in a lake. Picture: AFP / HO / BOKO HARAM Source: AFP

The MNJTF was formed in 1998 to fight trans-border crime but its mandate was expanded to tame the Boko Haram insurgency in the volatile region.

Mr Gamandi claimed the assailants killed all of their victims without using their guns.

"The attackers killed their victims silently without the use of the gun to avoid attracting attention from the multi-national troops,” Mr Gamandi said.

A military officer in Maiduguri confirmed the attack but said details were sketchy.

News of the attack was slow to emerge due to the destruction of mobile phone towers in the area by Boko Haram in previous attacks.

Incessant Boko Haram attacks have disrupted fishing and farming along the shore of Lake Chad and fishermen from Doron Baga were forced to abandon fishing and tued to importing dried fish from neighbouring Chad.

The Boko Haram violence has claimed thousands of lives since 2009 with the aim of creating a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria"s mainly Muslim north.