Kano, Nigeria - Boko Haram still poses a threat to civilians, despite a military crackdown, officials and experts said on Tuesday, after hundreds of bodies were found in a liberated northeast Nigerian town.
The grim discovery in Damasak, near Lake Chad in the far north of Borno state, came as the local government looked at the feasibility of returning thousands of people who fled the violence.
Decomposing bodies were found in houses, on the streets and in a dried up river, some of them covered in desert sand, although it was unclear when the killings took place.
The deaths, the level of destruction in the town, which was retaken in early March, and a separate attack that killed 21 displaced people in Yobe state, underlined the continuing risks posed by the Islamists.
The chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Grema Terab, said more than 100,000 people were living in camps in the state capital Maiduguri or with relatives.
"But we would not allow them to back to their domains until we (have) fully secured the towns and villages," he added.
Bulama Mali Gubio, from the Borno Elders Forum civil society group, also called for tighter security before the displaced can return, including a permanent presence of troops.
"There is no way people can go back to their homes in the present arrangement where soldiers leave the areas they retake from Boko Haram the moment the insurgents are pushed out," he told AFP.
"Every time soldiers retake a town from Boko Haram the insurgents flee into the bush and lurk around. Once they understand the troops have withdrawn they resurface," he added.
AFP
