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.