By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAGA, Nigeria — Between Friday and Sunday, fighting between Nigeria’s military and Islamic extremists reportedly killed at least 185 people and injured more than 70 in a fishing community in northeastern Nigeria.  During the attack, insurgents used fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers sprayed machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians.

The fighting began Friday when Nigerian army forces surrounded a mosque where they believed Boko Haram members were hiding out.  The fighting broke out after Boko Haram militants killed a military officer, news agencies reported.  Nigerian security forces then surrounded a mosque that they described as a base for militants and Boko Haram fighters exchanged automatic weapons fire in civilian neighborhoods.

Military officials said the militants deployed heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades and used the civilian population as “human shields.”  On Sunday, when government officials entered the city they found absolute destruction: homes, businesses and vehicles were burned throughout the area.

Many of the deaths occurred when a fire swept through the town, a small fishing town on the shores of Lake Chad in the Borno state near Nigeria’s three-way border with Cameroon and Chad.  It was not clear how many of the dead were soldiers, militants and civilians, in part because many were burned beyond recognition.

Borno state military spokesman Sagir Musa said initial reports were highly inflated.  “There could have been some casualties, but it is unthinkable to say that 185 people died,” Musa said, according to Agence France-Presse.  “On my honor as an officer, nothing like that happened.”

The assault marks a significant escalation in the long-running insurgency Nigeria faces in its predominantly Muslim north, with Boko Haram extremists mounting a coordinated assault on soldiers using military-grade weaponry. The killings also mark one of the deadliest incidents ever involving Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which means “western education is a sin,” seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, a country of 170 million split evenly between Christians and Muslims.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera  – Scores Killed in Nigeria Violence – 22 April 2013

BBC – Nigeria Fighting “Kills Scores” in Baga – 22 April 2013

Los Angeles Times – Dozens Killed in Gun Battles in Northern Nigeria – 22 April 2013

Reuters – Nigeria Says Heavy Fighting in Northeast, No Word on Casualties – 22 April 2013