More than 1,200 killed since May in Boko Haram attacks – UN

LAGOS (AFP) – Attacks by Islamist group Boko Haram in
Nigeria's restive northeast have killed more than 1,200 people
since May, when a state of emergency was declared in the
region, the United Nations said Monday.

Nigeria placed the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe under
emergency rule on May 14, following waves of deadly violence by the Islamist rebels.

President Goodluck Jonathan sent thousands of troops backed
by air support to the northeast to crush the four-year-old uprising.

The UN toll is the first independent fatality figure to have
emerged since the military operation was launched.

"Some 1,224 people have been killed in Boko Haram related
attacks" since May, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA)
said in a statement.

The toll includes civilians, military personnel as well
insurgents killed by security forces repelling attacks.

But OCHA spokeswoman Choice Okoro told AFP that UN
figure did not include insurgents killed during targeted
military operations.

Defence officials have in recent months released a series of
statements claiming scores of rebel deaths in operations on
Boko Haram strongholds.

The details of those statements have been difficult to verify
amid a communication blackout in much of the northeast and
the military has been widely accused of downplaying fatalities
among civilians and its own personnel.

"The humanitarian situation in northeast Nigeria has been
increasingly worrisome over the course of 2013," the UN
said, adding that there have been 48 separate "Boko Haram
related" attacks in the region since emergency rule was
declared.

Among the most gruesome was a pre-dawn massacre at an
agricultural college in Yobe state, during which gunmen
entered dormitories under the cover of darkness and shot dead
40 students in their sleep.

OCHA noted that "information on the situation is scarce,"
with figures of those displaced by the conflict and those who
have fled to neighbouring states "hard to gauge."

The military had switched off the mobile network across the
region, apparently to block Islamists from coordinating
attacks.

Officially, mobile service has been restored in all three states,
but communication remains difficult in Borno, the epicentre
of the insurgency and where Boko Haram was founded more
than a decade ago.

Jonathan, who has described the military offensive as a success, has extended the state of emergency through to May
of next year, a move he said was necessary to clear out
remaining Boko Haram strongholds.

While the security forces have not stopped the bloodshed,
they have largely succeeded in containing Boko Haram in the
northeast, the group's historic base.

Through 2012, the insurgents staged attacks across the wider
north, including near-weekly suicide bombings at churches in
major population centres.

Boko Haram, declared a terrorist organisation by the United
States in November, has said it is fighting to create and
Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.

Washington also slapped a $7 million (5.1 million euros)
bounty on the group's purported leader, Abubakar Shekau,
who has ruled out any form of negotiations with the
government.