MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – When men wearing military fatigues and carrying weapons showed up in pickup trucks, villagers thought Nigerian soldiers had finally come to protect them from Boko Haram.
But it was a disguise. The gunmen rounded up everyone in the village center and then started shooting.
Altogether, Boko Haram militants slaughtered hundreds of people in three villages in the far northeast corner of Nigeria, witnesses said Thursday, describing the latest attack by the Islamic extremist group that drew international attention for the kidnapping of more than 300 schoolgirls.
A community leader who witnessed the killings on Monday said residents had pleaded for the military to send soldiers to protect the area after they heard that militants were about to attack.
The militants arrived in Toyota HiLux pickup trucks – commonly used by the military – and told the civilians they were soldiers and that they had come “to protect you all,” the same tactic used by the group when they kidnapped the girls from a school in the town of Chibok on April 15.