FG Denies Boko Haram Captured 500 Children

The Federal Government has dismissed reports making the rounds that Boko Haram insurgents on Tuesday abducted 500 children from the north-eastern town of Damasak.

Reacting to the reports, the head, Nigeria Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, refuted the number saying that the figure was lower, but he could not say exactly how many had been seized.

Regional forces recaptured Damasak, a trading town, earlier in March.

Mr Omeri said that the militants released some women and children when they fled the town, but not those “they had married in the period of occupation”.

The militants were using them as “protection” and the government had ordered “full military intervention” to secure their release, he said.

Damasak is in Borno state near Niger’s border and is about 200km (120 miles) from the state’s main city of Maiduguri.