Boko Haram Abducts 400 in Borno Town
Far from being over, the war on insurgency inNigeria may have only just begun.
Fleeing citizens were on Tuesday reported to have claimed that at least 400 persons have again being abducted by members of the terrorist group in Damask, Borno State.
It was learnt, also on Tuesday, that military authorities arrested a suspected suicide bomber who was dressed as a woman in a market at Kwayar Kusar, in Borno State.
Expolosives were strapped around his body.
About 400 women and children were said to have been kidnapped by Boko from the town of Damasak, which was freed this month by troops from Niger and Chad, residents said on Tuesday.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the figure. Boko Haram’s abduction last April of nearly 300 schoolgirls in the region sparked international outrage and drew global attention to the group’s six-year insurgency.
When asked for confirmation of the report, the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, told Daily Times cryptically: “Let them ask the Chadians who claimed to have captured the place.”
Reuters quoted a trader, ouleymane Ali, , as saying: “They took 506 young women and children (in Damasak). They killed about 50 of them before leaving.”
The trader added: “We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them.”
Troops from Niger and Chad last week found the bodies of at least 70 people in an apparent execution site under a bridge leading out of Damasak, where the streets remain strewn with debris and burnt-out cars after the fighting.
Ali said his wife and three of his daughters were among those seized.
“Two of them were supposed to get married this year. (Boko Haram) said ‘They are slaves so we’re taking them because they belong to us’,” he said.
Mohamed Ousmane, another trader, said the militants took his two wives and three of their children.
A 40-year-old resident who gave her name as Fana said fighters had rounded up captives in the main mosque before taking them out of town. She said she saved her two children by hiding them in her house.
