The dreaded Boko Haram sect has struck again. This time around, they have abducted 30 adolescents with some of the girls aged as young as 11
“The insurgents grabbed young people, boys and girls, from our region,” said Alhaji Shettima Maina, who is in charge of the Mafa village around 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
“They took all boys aged 13 and over and all girls aged 11 and more. According to our information, 30 young people were abducted in the last two days.” Another village elder, Mallam Ashiekh Mustapha, confirmed the account.
Both men said 17 people were also killed in recent days in a Boko Haram attack on the nearby village of Ndongo. Boko Haram, which has been waging a bloody insurgency since 2009, has been responsible for waves of attacks and abductions.
In April, the Islamist rebel group snatched more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in northeast Nigeria, triggering an international outcry.
The modus operandi of the group is to kidnap young woman and girls and force them into marriages with rebels while the men and boys are conscripted forcefully into joining the group.
This latest kidnapping comes despite the Nigerian government declaring a truce with the insurgents and the army retaking control of Abadam in the north-east on Saturday, according to a senior security official in the region.
But local chief Maina said his village and areas around it were targeted in nearly daily raids by Boko Haram, and many residents have fled to Maiduguri “for fear of being killed or losing their children”. He said he had pleaded for help from the Nigerian government but that so far none had been forthcoming.
Leave a Reply