No fewer than 185 women have been reported kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents in Gumsuri, North of Chibok in Borno State.
The insurgents, who killed about 32 men,
set fire on the village with petrol bombs before herding the women and
children in their pickup trucks.
The Sunday incident is coming less than
nine months after over 200 schoolchildren were abducted by Boko Haram
gunmen from their hostel in Chibok.
The fate of most of the girls remains
unknown even though military authorities openly declared that they knew
where they are being held.
News of the attack took four days to emerge because of a lack of communication.
Telecommunications towers in the area had been disabled in previous attacks.
A local government official confirm the abduction. “They gathered the women and children and
took them away in trucks after burning most of the village with petrol
bombs,” the official whose name was not given said.
He added that he learned of the attack from residents who fled to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The Boko Haram
militants stormed the village from two directions, overwhelming local
vigilantes who had repelled them over the course of the year.
A resident of Gumsuri, Umar Ari, who trekked for four days to Maiduguri, said,
‘‘They destroyed almost half the village and took away 185 women, girls and boys.”
Another resident, Modu Kalli, said the
militants fired heavy machine guns on the village and poured canisters
of petrol 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.
Meanwhile, Cameroon army killed 116 Boko Haram militants who attacked a base in the far north of the country on Wednesday.
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