According to a breaking news report on AFP, around 30 adolescents --
some of them girls aged as young as 11 -- have been abducted in
northeast Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram rebels.
"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 Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
"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."
Another village elder, Mallam Ashiekh Mustapha,
confirmed the account. Both men said 17 people were also killed in
recent days in a Boko Haram attack on the nearby village of Ndongo. 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.
The latest kidnapping comes despite the Nigerian
government declaring a truce with the insurgents and the army retaking
control of Abadam in the north-east on Saturday, according to a senior
security official in the region. But local chief Maina said his village
and areas around it were targeted in nearly daily raids by Boko Haram,
and many residents have fled to Maiduguri "for fear of being killed or
losing their children". He said he had pleaded for help from the
Nigerian government but that so far none had been forthcoming.
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