ISWAP executes 10 Christian captives in new video

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has released another video where it executed 11 of its captives barely two weeks after executing four persons working with Action Against Hunger in a viral video.

The victims, mostly Christians, were spotted in the video pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to help negotiate their release, according to Ahmad Salkida, a conflict and terrorism reporter in Nigeria.

A video released on Wednesday showed 13 hostages, 10 believed to be Christian and three Muslim. ISWAP claimed they spared the lives of two of the Muslims.

Explaining the reasons for the execution, the terrorist group, which has been inflicting mayhem in the North-Eastern part of the country said, “We killed them as revenge for the killings of our leaders including Abubakar al-Baghdadi and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria.”

Salkida stated that the decision to execute the captives was rather swift, abrupt and shocking, adding that ISWAP had reportedly opened a window of negotiation ostensibly to exchange the freedom of the captives with those of its members in government custody but the Nigerian Government failed to take the offer.

The United Nations had earlier called on President Buhari to take action to prevent further killings of Nigerians by the ISWAP and Boko Haram sects.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the Secretary-General, in a statement said the Nigerian Government must hold those involved in the abduction and killings accountable.