Mass grave found in recaptured Nigerian town

At least 70 bodies were found in a mass grave on the outskirts of the
town of Damasak after it was recaptured from Boko Haram fighters,
Chadian and Nigerien military officials have said.
Soldiers discovered the bodies, some decapitated, under a bridge just
outside the town on Friday, which was retaken from Boko Haram by
troops from Chad and Niger.
"There are ... bodies spread around under the bridge just outside the
town," Colonel Azem Bermandoa Agouna told the AFP news agency,
adding that he had visited the scene himself close to the border with
Niger.
He claimed the massacre probably happened about two months ago
and blamed it on the Boko Haram armed group from Nigeria.
Footage showed the bodies were strewn beneath the concrete bridge
on one of the main roads leading out of the town.
Colonel Bermandoa Agouna told AFP that several of the victims had
been decapitated while others had been shot. "There are heads here
and bodies there, the mass grave has become like a termite mound,"
he added.
A Reuters news agency military source also claimed that the bodies
were Boko Haram's victims.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify these claims.
Chad and Niger launched a vast air and ground offensive against Boko
Haram in the area on March 8, quickly taking Damasak from the group.
"Operation Mai Dounama" aims to destroy Boko Haram bases close to
Niger, a Nigerien army spokesman said on Thursday.
Damasak was seized by the group in November killing around 50
people and forcing another 3,000 to flee, according to the UN's High
Commissioner for Refugees. But the town was recaptured by African
troops on Saturday.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in six years of fighting
aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.