Satellite Images Show Borno City in Nigeria Reduced to Rubble by Boko Haram Attack

Before: Boko Haram militants attacked the city of Bama, home to around 300,000 people, in September last year, driving the military away and taking control of the city. Satellite images show buildings (blue) and trees (red) before they were destroyed

Shocking new satellite images released as part of a new report by Amnesty International showing the devastation wreaked by Boko Haram fighters on Bama, the second largest city in Borno state city in northern Nigeria, over a period of six months from September 2014.

 

In March, Nigerian troops regained control of the city. Knowing they were going to be defeated, the Islamist fighters fled, burning as they went, leaving almost three quarters of the once thriving city in ruins.

 

After: When the Nigerian military returned six months later, the Islamists fled, burning and killing as they went. Survivors say women and the elderly were burned in their homes. Another image shows the buildings flattened, and trees burned

The militants destroyed 5,900 buildings, including schools, markets, the city's hospital, and a local palace. According to villagers who escaped the slaughter, the fighters torched homes with people still inside them and burned the local prison with inmates still locked in their cells.



Boko Haram flattened 5,900 buildings, almost three quarters of the entire city (destroyed buildings are marked in yellow), including markets, the hospital, prison, and a palace which used to stand in the city centre