WUNRN
BOKO HARAM KIDNAPPED 200 NIGERIAN SCHOOLGIRLS IN APRIL 2014
GLOBAL OUTCRY: BRING BACK OUR GIRLS!
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http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/18/world/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-kidnapping
Website link includes video.
Nigeria - Boko Haram Kidnaps 185 Women &
Children, Kills 32 People
By Aminu Abubakr and Ben Brumfield, CNN – December 18, 2014
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped
at least 185 women and children, and killed 32 people in a raid in northeastern
Nigeria this week, local officials and residents said.
Gunmen in pickup trucks attacked the village of Gumsuri, just
north of Chibok, on Sunday, shooting down men before herding women and children
together.
"They gathered the women and children and took them away in
trucks after burning most of the village with petrol bombs," a local
government official said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
News of the attack took four days to emerge because of a lack of
communication. Telecommunications towers in the region had been disabled in
previous attacks.
Local officials learned of the attack from residents who fled to
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, where the officials had moved a year ago
to escape Boko Haram
attacks.
The militants stormed the village from two directions,
overwhelming local vigilantes who had repelled Boko Haram attacks over the
course of the year, said Gumsuri resident Umar Ari, who trekked for four days
to Maiduguri.
ý"They destroyed almost half the village and took away 185
women, girls and boys," Ari said.ý
Resident Modu Kalli said the militants fired heavy machine guns on
the village and poured canisters of gasoline on houses before setting them on
fire.
"We lost everything in the attack. I escaped with nothing,
save the clothes I have on me," Kalli said.
Hundreds of residents of Gumsuri continue to arrive in Maiduguri,
which has been struggling to accommodate thousands of residents fleeing towns
and villages overrun by Boko Haram.
Cameroon: At least 116 Boko Haram fighters killed
Meanwhile, the Cameroon military says that it killed at least 116
Boko Haram fighters during a fight in northern Cameroon on Wednesday, near the
border with northeastern Nigeria.
The incident began when the militant group tried to attack the
Cameroonian town of Amchide, military spokesman Lt. Col. Didier Badjeck said.
One Cameroonian soldier was killed, and another was missing after
the attack, according to a statement released by Badjeck. Boko Haram destroyed
two trucks and stole a third, Badjeck said.
Badjeck said the military believes its artillery also inflicted
unspecified damage to Boko Haram on the Nigerian side of the border during the
fight.
"Our defense forces rigorously fought back this barbaric
attack, and forced the enemy to retreat," Cameroonian government spokesman
Issa Tchiroma Bakary said.
"This terrorist group has only one objective: to spread fear
and uncertainty amongst our population. But I can assure you that they will be
defeated," Bakary said.
Two months ago, the nearby area of Limani, Cameroon, was the site
of a deadly clash between Boko Haram and Cameroonian forces. Eight Cameroonian
soldiers and 107 Boko Haram fighters were killed during an attack by the
militants that month, Cameroon state-run broadcaster CRTV reported, citing the
Cameroonian defense ministry.
Campaign of violence
Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009,
attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing government
buildings.
This month, at least one female Boko Haram suicide bomber killed five
people in Maiduguri. Last month, suicide bombings killed nearly 180
people. More than half of the victims died in an attack on a mosque that many
suspect Boko Haram was behind.
The group has targeted mainstream Islam, saying that it does not
represent the interests of Nigeria's 80 million Muslims and that it perverts
Islam.
In April, Boko Haram militants drew international condemnation
when they kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls, many of whom they later said
they sold into slavery.
At least 5,000 people have died at Boko Haram's hands, according to a
U.S. Congressional Research Service report, making it one of the
world's deadliest terrorist organizations.