A graphic image circulating on Facebook and Twitter is said to show the badly charred bodies of 375 Christians murdered by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria. But the claim is false.
The image is horrific. Dozens of charred corpses lie in rows in the sun. In the background near a ruined building with a rusting corrugated iron roof police, soldiers and medics – some of them wearing masks to hide the stench – stand around helplessly. A caption across the top of the photograph reads: “Boko Haram burns 375 Christians”.
The Nigerian militant group – which gained worldwide notoriety in April this year when it kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls – has been linked to hundreds of killings and dozens of atrocities and bombings since it launched a violent insurgency in 2009 to overthrow the country’s government and establish an Islamic state. Most recently the group has been implicated in attacks on villages in north-eastern Nigeria in which churches were torched and more than 40 people reported to have been killed. It has also been blamed for a car bomb explosion which claimed at least 56 lives.
