Groups Document Boko Haram’s Swath of Destruction in Nigeria
武裝分子掃蕩尼日利亞北部村鎮(zhèn)屠殺平民
DAKAR, Senegal — Thousands of buildings were burned, damaged or destroyed in northern Nigerian towns in recent days when Boko Haram militants stormed through, using scorched-earth tactics against civilians, according to a new analysis of satellite images by human rights groups.
塞內加爾達喀爾——幾家人權機構對衛(wèi)星影像進行的一次最新分析顯示,最近幾天,博科哈拉姆(Boko Haram,舊譯博科圣地)的武裝分子闖入尼日利亞北部的多座城鎮(zhèn),用焦土政策對付平民,導致數(shù)千棟建筑被焚燒、破壞或是徹底摧毀。
In a succession of attacks, fighters from Boko Haram, an Islamist insurgent group that has gripped northern Nigeria and battled the government for years, have swept through a cluster of villages along the shores of Lake Chad in a “systematic campaign of arson directed against the civilian population in the area,” according to Human Rights Watch.
根據(jù)人權觀察組織(Human Rights Watch)的說法,通過一連串的襲擊活動,博科哈拉姆的武裝分子掃蕩了乍得湖附近的一片村莊,實施了“針對該地區(qū)平民的系統(tǒng)性縱火行動”。伊斯蘭主義反叛組織博科哈拉姆已經攫取了尼日利亞北部,并與政府纏斗多年。
About 57 percent of one town, Doro Gowon, the location of a now-destroyed military base, appears to have been leveled, probably amounting to several thousand residential and commercial structures, Human Rights Watch said.
多羅戈翁城曾經有一座軍事基地,現(xiàn)已摧毀。人權觀察組織稱,這個城鎮(zhèn)約57%的地區(qū)看上去已被夷為平地,差不多相當于數(shù)千棟居民建筑和商業(yè)建筑。
Amnesty International, which has also analyzed the satellite images, said Thursday that about 3,100 buildings in the town had been damaged or destroyed, demonstrating a “deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and schools are now burnt out ruins.”
同樣分析了這些衛(wèi)星影像的國際特赦組織(Amnesty International)周四稱,多羅戈翁約有3100棟建筑遭到破壞或摧毀,證明這是一次“針對平民的蓄意襲擊,令這些平民的家園、醫(yī)院和學校如今被燒成廢墟”。
Large-scale massacres of civilians by Boko Haram shook northern Nigeria throughout 2014. About 300 people were killed in Gamboru Ngala in May, perhaps 500 died in a group of villages in Borno state in early June, an additional 120 died in Kano in November, and more than 150 died in Damaturu in December, along with numerous others.
博科哈拉姆對平民的大屠殺在整個2014年一直震動著尼日利亞北部。5月,約300人在甘博魯恩加拉遇害;6月初,在博爾諾州的一些村子里,大約500人喪命;11月,又有120人在卡諾州遭到屠殺;12月,超過150人在達馬圖魯遇害,在此之外還有不計其數(shù)的死難者。
In the first six months of 2014 alone, Boko Haram killed more than 2,000 civilians in northern and central Nigeria, Human Rights Watch estimated last year.
人權觀察組織去年估計,單是在2014年的前六個月,博科哈拉姆在尼日利亞北部和中部殺害的平民就超過了2000人。
Some of these massacres have attracted little attention. But when militants raided the fishing village of Baga in early January, Amnesty International asserted early on that “as many as 2,000” were killed. That figure has been impossible to verify, however, because the area quickly fell under the control of Boko Haram, causing thousands to flee.
其中有些大屠殺事件并未引起多少關注。然而,當武裝分子1月初襲擊巴加鎮(zhèn)的漁村時,國際特赦組織很快斷言有“多達2000人”遇害。不過,這一數(shù)字無法考證,因為博科哈拉姆迅速控制了此地,造成數(shù)千人逃亡。
Witnesses agreed that many had been killed in Baga when Boko Haram came riding in, guns blazing and shooting indiscriminately at civilians, as has been their custom, at least since 2011. They said the killing began Jan. 3, after the militants overpowered Nigerian soldiers at a military outpost there. Then the fighters turned on the residents.
目擊者認同的說法是,博科哈拉姆闖入巴加,按照至少始于2011年的慣例開火并朝平民胡亂射擊,導致許多人遇害。他們表示,此次屠殺始于1月3日,當時武裝分子制服了當?shù)匾惶庈姺缴谒哪崛绽麃喺娛勘?。然后,他們把目標對準了居民?/p>
But estimates of the death toll are murky. “It’s not possible to get any credible figures out of there,” said Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch’s Nigeria researcher. “It’s impossible to even guess.”
不過,死亡人數(shù)的估計仍然沒有頭緒。“不可能從那里得到任何可信的數(shù)據(jù),”人權觀察組織的尼日利亞研究員莫西·塞貢(Mausi Segun)表示。“連猜也沒辦法猜。”
Amnesty International appeared to be backing away from its initial 2,000 figure, saying Thursday that witnesses and local officials suggested that “Boko Haram militants shot hundreds of civilians.”
國際特赦組織似乎在收回最初估計的2000人數(shù)據(jù)。它周四稱,目擊者和當?shù)毓賳T表示,“博科哈拉姆的武裝分子槍殺了數(shù)以百計的平民。”
The area has suffered deadly attacks before — from both sides in the conflict.
這一地區(qū)以前也遭遇過血洗——沖突雙方均曾發(fā)起襲擊。