Baga, Nigeria

Baga
Baga

Location in Nigeria

Coordinates: 13°7′7.7″N 13°51′23.7″E / 13.118806°N 13.856583°E / 13.118806; 13.856583
Country  Nigeria
State Borno

Baga is a town in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, close to Lake Chad, and lying northeast of the town of Kukawa. It is located within the Kukawa Local Government Area.

The town is approximately 196km from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.[1] The "Doron Baga" fish market, as of 2000, was located about six kilometres from the town.[1] Baga used to lie on the border of Lake Chad and was a fishing center itself in the 1960s and 1970s, but the diminishing size of the lake has caused fishermen to move, and others have turned to subsistence farming.[2][3][4]

Baga massacres

Baga appears on a peninsula jutting into Lake Chad on this 1973 map.

2013 Baga massacre

Further information: 2013 Baga massacre

In April 2013, over 185 people were killed and over 2000 homes in Baga were destroyed as a result of fighting between the Nigerian military and the Boko Haram Islamist group.[5]

2015 Baga massacre

Further information: 2015 Baga massacre

In January 2015, Boko Haram again attacked the town, seizing it and the military base used by a multinational force set up to fight them. The town was burned and the people massacred — perhaps 2000 deaths[6] — the largest such massacre in Boko Haram's history.[7] Some residents escaped to nearby Chad.[8]

Satellite imagery taken on 2 and 7 January was released by Amnesty International showing that in Baga, which is "less than two square kilometres in size, approximately 620 structures were damaged or completely destroyed by fire." In Doron Baga (or Doro Gowon), located about 2.5 km away, fishing boats present on the 2nd were no longer visible, and "more than 3,100 structures were damaged or destroyed by fire affecting most of the 4 square kilometre town."[9]

References

  1. 1 2 Mukhtar, Yakubu and Waziri A. Gazali. The Dynamics of Fish Trade in North-East Nigeria: A Case Study of Doron Baga, Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268, Band 14, Frankfurt a.M. 2000: 83-91
  2. ↑ Idris, Hamza et al. (30 June 2012)Nigeria: Northern Communities Losing Territory to Desert, Daily Trust (AllAfrica.com)
  3. ↑ Bomford, Andrew (14 April 2006). Slow death of Africa's Lake Chad, BBC News ("Just 30 years ago, water covered the whole area. Baga was a waterfront town. Now it is stranded many miles from the lake as the land around it becomes desert.")
  4. ↑ Murray, Senan (15 January 2007). Lake Chad fisherman pack up their nets, BBC News
  5. ↑ "Nigeria fighting 'kills scores' in Baga". BBC News. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  6. ↑ "Boko Haram massacre thousands, says Amnesty International". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Nigeria: Massacre possibly deadliest in Boko Haram’s history". Amnesty International. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  8. ↑ "Boko Haram seizes army base in Nigeria town of Baga". BBC News. 4 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Amnesty International. Nigeria: Satellite Images Show Horrific Scale of Boko Haram Attack On Baga. allAfrica.com, January 15, 2015
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