Nigeria killings: EU deplores lack of international attention

Strasbourg, Jan 15: The European Parliament has strongly condemned the recent massacre carried out by the Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria's Baga town and deplored the lack of international attention to the killings, media reported Thursday.

In a discussion with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, Members of European Parliament (MEP) also deplored the lack of international attention to the mass killings in Baga and called upon the international community to help Nigeria eradicate the causes of terrorism there, Xinhua reported.

They demanded an international inquiry into the Baga massacre, which reportedly left 2,000 people, mostly women, children and elderly, dead and urged the EU to step up its assistance to Nigeria and its neighbours in fighting terrorism and its causes.

Mogherini said the numbers of victims of the ongoing terror attacks by Boko Haram were "frightening". Around 13,000 people have been killed since 2009, with more than half of this number killed during 2014.

Around 1.5 million people are internally displaced within Nigeria, another 1,55,000 taken refugees in the neighbouring Niger, 37,000 in Cameroon and 11,000 in Chad.

"The EU is committed to aiding the struggle against Boko Haram," she said.

"Besides helping with the short-term humanitarian response, the EU is already providing funds in counter-terrorism assistance to Nigerian security agencies," she added.

"Nigeria is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, (yet) two-thirds of its population live on under a dollar a day. It is a global scandal, and this is only one of the examples that prove that a large proportion of EU development aid is being consumed by corruption in some states," said Davor Ivo Stier, who is representing the centre-right EPP group in the Parliament.

A resolution on the recent killings in Northern Nigeria will be voted at the European Parliament's February plenary session.