Islamist group, Boko Haram, killed 1,200 since May

Nigeria: UN - Boko Haram Killed 1,200 Under Emergency Rule

Attacks by the outlawed Islamist group, Boko Haram, have claimed over 1,200 lives since May when a state of emergency was declared in the region, the United Nations said yesterday. The federal government had on May 14 placed the states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe under emergency rule, following waves of deadly violence by the Islamist rebels.

President Goodluck Jonathan had sent thousands of troops backed by air support to the North-east to crush the four-year-old uprising.

According to a report by AFP, the UN toll is the first independent fatality figure to have emerged since the military operation was launched.

"Some 1,224 people have been killed in Boko Haram related attacks" since May, the UN Humanitarian Agency (OCHA) said in a statement. The toll includes civilians, military personnel as well insurgents killed by security forces repelling attacks.

But OCHA spokeswoman, Choice Okoro told AFP that the UN figure did not include insurgents killed during targeted military operations.

Defence officials have in recent months released a series of statements claiming scores of rebel deaths in operations on Boko Haram strongholds.

The details of those statements have been difficult to verify amid a communication blackout in much of the North-east and the military has been widely accused of downplaying fatalities among civilians and its own personnel.

"The humanitarian situation in North-east Nigeria has been increasingly worrisome over the course of 2013," the UN said, adding that there have been 48 separate "Boko Haram related" attacks in the region since emergency rule was declared.

Among the most gruesome was a pre-dawn massacre at an agricultural college in Yobe State, during which gunmen entered dormitories under the cover of darkness and shot dead 40 students in their sleep.

OCHA noted that "information on the situation is scarce," with figures of those displaced by the conflict and those who have fled to neighbouring states "hard to gauge." The military had switched off the mobile network across the region, apparently to block Islamists from coordinating attacks