Adult male residents of the city of Maiduguri are fleeing en masse this weekend after a Friday massacre carried out by the Nigerian military, in which troops executed random young men and teenage boys in multiple neighborhoods.
The victims did not appear to have anything in common apart from gender and age range, and locals say that more massacres were feared as a recently assassinated retired general’s funeral was to be held today.
Some neighborhoods report that only women and small children remain, along with those elderly men considered too old to be of interest to the military in “revenge attacks.” The military has been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians in Maiduguri, the home town of Boko Haram, in retaliation for the militant faction’s actions.
Nigeria’s military has not only denied involvement in the recent massacre, but claims that it hadn’t even heard of large numbers of people being shot execution-style in the streets. Local officials confirmed the killings, but largely insisted on remaining anonymous in the press for fear that they could also become targets.