Boko Haram fighters slaughter their wives

Dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their “husbands” before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama, multiple witnesses say.

Five witnesses who recounted the massacres to AFP say the Islamist terrorists feared they would be killed by advancing soldiers or separated from their wives when they fled the town.

They killed the women to prevent them from subsequently marrying soldiers or other so-called nonbelievers, the witnesses say.

“The terrorists said they will not allow their wives to be married to infidels,” says Sharifatu Bakura, 39, a mother of three.

According to Bakura’s account, which is supported by others, Boko Haram fighters received word of a military assault on Bama, formerly an Islamist stronghold in Borno state.

The insurgents decided to flee to the nearby town of Gwoza before the troops’ arrival but first decided “to kill their wives so that nobody will remarry them,” she says.

— AFP