Dozens abducted in suspected Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria
Latest update : 2014-10-26
At least 17 people were killed in a series of suspected Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria's northeast Borno State Thursday while dozens of young people have been abducted from the region in recent days, the head of a local administration said Sunday.
"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 the city of Maiduguri."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."
Maina said 17 people had been killed in Thursdays attacks, which targeted the nearby Ndongo village.
“We buried the remains of the victims in Mafa on Friday,” he added.
Another village elder, Mallam Ashiekh Mustapha, confirmed the account.
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.
Kidnapping young women and girls – as well as forcibly conscripting young men and boys to fight for Boko Haram – is a well-established tactic by the militants.
Some estimates put the number of women held by the group in the high hundreds. Most are believed to be forced into marriages with rebels.
Maina said his village and areas around it were targeted in nearly daily raids by Boko Haram, prompting many residents to flee to the city of Maiduguri for safety and despite the announcement of a ceasefire by the Nigeria government.
He said he had pleaded for help from the Nigerian government but that so far none had been forthcoming.
Clashes in Cameroon
Meanwhile, Cameroon said Sunday that its troops had killed 39 Boko Haram fighters in clashes with the Islamists on Friday, who were carrying out three raids on Cameroon's territory.
The fighting in the far north of Cameroon close to the Nigerian border also claimed four civilian lives, Cameroon’s the defence ministry said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency.
Boko Haram rebels frequently cross into neighbouring Cameroon.
Their latest attack targeted the village of Glawi, "killing four Nigerian refugees and wounding one Cameroonian, before being pushed back by defence forces which pursued them until the borders," the ministry said, adding that a dozen militants were killed by troops.
Another two groups of Boko Haram Islamists entered Cameroon at around the same time, but were "immediately intercepted and neutralised by our defence forces who destroyed three 4x4 vehicles equipped with machine guns, killing 27 assailants," said the ministry statement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
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