Amnesty International has released satellite images that show the widespread damage that the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram inflicted on a town in northeast Nigeria.  The evidence stands in stark contrast to the claims of the Nigerian military, which downplayed the horrific massacre.

“This week, Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information stated that the number of people killed in Baga including Boko Haram fighters ‘has so far not exceeded about 150’”, said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty.  “These images, together with the stories of those who survived the attack, suggest that the final death toll could be much higher than this figure.”

The images show the fishing town Baga and the nearby town of Doron Baga before and after Boko Haram’s attacks this month.  The “after” photo shows the ruins of numerous buildings destroyed.  Local politicians acknowledged that at least hundreds of people were killed.  But then, Nigeria’s military said only about 150 people perished in the attacks.

“The satellite images that we have show that the attacks on the Baga and the surrounding towns were of an enormous scale,” said Eyre. “The town next to Baga, that is Doron Baga, the satellite images show that more that 3,100 buildings were destroyed in the attack. That means almost the entire town was razed.”

Earlier, Amnesty suggested that upwards of 2,000 people were killed in the attacks.  Boats and vehicles are gone, suggesting that a number of people fled not only to the regional capital Maiduguri, but across the lake into Chad.