The United Nations has made a U-turn on its earlier claim that 110 farmers were beheaded by Boko Haram members in Zabarmari community, Borno State.
DAILY POST reported on Saturday that 43 farmers were killed in an attack by insurgents on Koshobe rice field.
During a mass burial of the deceased farmers, the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, confirmed to journalists that 43 farmers were killed.
But a UN statement, signed by Eve Sabbagh, UN’s Head of Public Information at the OCHA in Nigeria, quoted Head of the UN System in Nigeria, Edward Kallon saying that he was “outraged and horrified by the gruesome attack against civilians carried out by non-state armed groups in villages near Borno State capital Maiduguri.
“At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack.”
The organisation made a U-turn on this in a new statement on Monday, saying that its initial statement was inaccurate.
Ms Sabbagh in the statement asked journalists to disregard the earlier statement.
“Please note the number of 110 civilians killed on Saturday’s attack is an unconfirmed number and the correct version of the statement by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator is the one published yesterday on Reliefweb and used on OCHA Nigeria’s Twitter account,” the statement said, replacing the “110 deaths” with “unspecified figure”.
Kallon now added that “tens of civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack.”
