Extremists in Nigeria Lining up Elderly and Shooting Them

[undeterred]

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Dec 20, 2014, 7:06 AM ET
By HARUNA UMAR Associated Press

Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria are turning their guns on elderly people, killing more than 50 this week in a new tactic that has instilled more fear in areas the militants call an Islamic caliphate. Residents from five villages say people too elderly to flee Gwoza local government area are being rounded up and taken to two schools where the militants open fire on them. The villages are about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.

"What they are doing now is to assemble the aged people ? both men and women ... and then they just open fire on some of them," said Muhammed Gava, a spokesman for civil defense groups in the area. More than 50 people had been killed at Government Day Secondary School in Gwoza, he said. A villager who had fled said more elderly people are being gathered and shot at Uvaghe Central Primary School. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of endangering his trapped parents.

Government officials did not immediately comment on the reports. Nigeria's military said soldiers are patrolling "in search of terrorists" and "to verify abductions" Friday around the village of Gumburi, where witnesses say extremists kidnapped at least 185 people a week ago. Nigeria's military and government have been criticized for their failure to rescue 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from a town near Gumburi in April.

In separate attacks Friday, witnesses said Boko Haram struck at Damagum and Mamudo towns in Yobe state, bombing government buildings, the police station and military barracks. The extremists suffered a setback when they attacked soldiers guarding a power station in Borno state, according to an engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said soldiers were warned in advance that the extremists were advancing and engaged the militants in fierce fighting that killed at least 70.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/extremists-nigeria-lining-elderly-shooting-27733721

This is just horrible.

[undeterred]

3. ???

Way to diminish a mass killing committed by terrorists.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. I just have to say that the people who got murdered never had any pensions or social security or

Medicare. People who had much less than you have now also lost their lives. To use them as a rhetorical device to talk about yourself is a hell of a choice to make.

[Posteritatis]

6. It's one of the more irritating blind spots some people here have

Anything that happens abroad isn't relevant or doesn't 'count' somehow unless they can drag it into an often wildly unrelated US context.

[Aerows]

7. People envy the things

that we take for granted, and feel blessed for half of them.

[Posteritatis]

5. Yeeeeah, seek help. (nt)

[silverweb]

8. Horrifying and so callous!

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Those poor people....

[undeterred]

9. If they wanted to instill fear in the population

this has got to be pretty effective. Everyone has elderly parents or relatives.

[nomorenomore08]

17. I just thought of my 89-year-old grandmother with mid-stage dementia.

She'd be utterly helpless in a situation like this.

[undeterred]

18. Preying on the most vulnerable.

Its really evil.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. so horrifying

[Katashi_itto]

11. Are these Republicans?

[enlightenment]

12. No.

This has nothing to do with US political parties. Not everything on the planet revolves around the US, and the insistence on trying to make spurious connections to "score" a point in the never-ending game of "Us against Them" is disturbing on more than one level.

[Katashi_itto]

13. Lol, your response is even funnier

[L0oniX]

14. +1

[enlightenment]

15. Hardly as amusing as

your anticipated and predictable response.

[Katashi_itto]

16. I'm not the one defending Republicans

[kiva]

19. So happy you find this amusing.

Because what's funnier than non-Americans being murdered so you can snark about U.S. political parties?

[Katashi_itto]

20. Posture much?