A woman in the middle of giving birth was not spared from a Boko Haram attack in a village in northeastern Nigeria, the most brutal offensive in the militant group's half-a-decade long insurgency, Amnesty International reported on Thursday.

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Amnesty quoted a witness as saying that a baby was coming out of a mother in Baga, which lies near Lake Chad, when indiscriminate fire from Boko Haram fighters cut her down. The group said that scores of people had been massacred in the attack, which started on January 3. Militants were reported to be targeting civilian vigilantes aiding the military.

Witnesses said about 100 people were gunned down in Baga and there bodies everywhere. The testimony confirms reports from local officials that hundreds were killed, with decomposing bodies littered the streets.

The armed forces of Nigeria, which often play down the death count, said this week that around 150 people were killed, denying reports that as many as 2,000 were dead. Security officials have said that the exact death toll may be impossible to determine, with nearly impossible access to the town and its nearby areas, which are still under rebel rule.

On Thursday, Amnesty also came out with satellite images of Baga and the neighboring village of Doron Baga, which is 2.5 kilometers away, showing the extent of the attack.

The aerial shots were a series of images showing the two towns 24 hours before the militants attacked and 96 hours later, after they cut down businesses and homes. Fighting between government forces and Islamist fighters had previously hit the towns.

Amnesty's Nigeria researcher said the high-resolution pictures show destruction of catastrophic proportions in Baga and Doron Baga, one of them almost razed to the ground, based on the map, in a matter of four days. 

TagsBoko Haram, Nigeria