WUNRN
NIGERIA - ARMED BOKO HARAM MILITANTS
ALLEGEDLY KIDNAPPED 20 MORE WOMEN NEAR CHIBOK, REPORTS SAY
Armed Islamists
alleged to have forced women into vehicles and taken them to remote, unknown
location in north-east
Schoolgirls stand
in a
9 June 2014 - Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have reportedly kidnapped 20 women from a nomadic settlement in north-east Nigeria near the town of Chibok, where the Islamic militants abducted nearly 300 girls in April, most of whom are still missing.
Alhaji Tar, a member of one of the vigilante groups set up to resist Boko Haram's attacks, said the men arrived in Garkin Fulani at midday on Thursday and forced the women to enter their vehicles at gunpoint.
The group also kidnapped three young men who tried to stop the abduction, and drove to an unknown location in the remote stretch of Borno state, he said.
News of the latest kidnapping came as the
people of
Lawan Abba Kaka and John Gulla, from Attagara in Borno state, said nearly 110 people had now been interred after Islamist militants stormed the village and at least three others nearby on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.
Boko Haram, which wants to set up an Islamic state in
Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South in
"From what those who fled told us,
there are more corpses in nearby bushes and the mountainside," he told
reporters after a meeting in the Borno state capital of
Hundreds of people were feared dead in the attack in the Gwoza district of Borno, with some community leaders putting the death toll as high as 500, although there was no independent verification of the claim.
Peter Biye, who represents Gwoza in
Heavily armed gunmen were said to have killed babies being carried on their mothers' backs and shot down villagers as they tried to flee.
Asabe Vilita, a Gwoza local government
leader who is also Borno commissioner for commerce and investment, said 1,290 people
were displaced by the violence and many had gone to
The villages were a mix of Christian and Muslim communities and Ndume said they had lived together peacefully for a long time.
"They may have their disagreements,
but the latest attacks were perpetrated by Boko Haram. It is sad because our
people were mercilessly murdered and many houses razed," he said.