Baga raid: Satellite images 'show Nigeria army abuse'
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Satellite images reveal that 2,275 homes were destroyed during a military raid to hunt down militant Islamists in the northern Nigerian town of Baga last month, a rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch said soldiers "engaged more in destruction than in protection" after Boko Haram fighters attacked a military patrol.
The army has not commented on the latest allegations.
It has said 37 people were killed; others say more than 180 died.
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Ibrahim Modu Baga residentI lost everything in my house after soldiers came and set my house ablaze”
The Islamist Boko Haram group has waged an insurgency to create an Islamic state since 2010.
Correspondents say soldiers have often been accused of using excessive force in its efforts to put down the insurgency.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan regarded the conflict in Baga as "most regrettable and unfortunate", his office said, in a statement on Tuesday.
"He reaffirmed his full commitment to doing all within the powers of the federal government to speedily end the intolerable threats to national security which have necessitated such confrontations," it said.
'Duty of protection'Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Nigerian authorities to impartially investigate and prosecute soldiers responsible for recent violence in Baga.
It said satellite images it had analysed undermined the military's assertion that only 30 houses were destroyed during the fighting in Baga, a remote fishing community on the shores of Lake Chad, on 16 and 17 April.
Baga residents told HRW that soldiers ransacked the town after Boko Haram killed a soldier during an attack on a military patrol.
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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