Dozens of girls and young women are being abducted by Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria, raising doubts about an announced ceasefire and the hope for release of 219 schoolgirls held captive since April.
Thirty teenage girls and boys have been kidnapped since Wednesday from villages around Mafa town, 40km from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, the local government chairman said.
Escaping residents said Boko Haram insurgents had abducted 80 girls and women from neighbouring Adamawa state on October 18th. Older women in the group who were released the following day said the extremists kept about 40 younger women and girls, according to the residents.
On October 17th, Nigeria’s military announced that a ceasefire had been agreed with Boko Haram and ordered troops to immediately comply.
But the insurgents have launched several attacks since then and on Friday a multinational force including troops from Nigeria and Niger wrested back control of a town held by Boko Haram on the western shores of Lake Chad.
Fierce fighting
Witnesses and a security official said more than 20 insurgents were killed in fierce fighting at Abadam, in which the Nigerian air force bombed occupied posts and ground troops opened fire, after which the insurgents fled.
Boko Haram had hoisted their black-and-white flag in Abadam a week before, when they killed at least 40 civilians and forced hundreds in the farming community to flee into Niger, according to some residents who escaped to Maiduguri, 200km to the east.
The continued fighting and abductions raise questions about the ceasefire. Ten days after the announcement, Boko Haram has yet to indicate that it has agreed to a truce.
Officials had said the ceasefire would lead to the speedy release of the 219 girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 15th.
Abducted girls are subjected to horrific treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a new report, quoting escapees who described forced marriages and rapes, forced conversions to Islam, forced labour and forced participation in attacks.
The insurgents mainly target Christians and schoolgirls, said Human Rights Watch. More than 500 girls and women have been kidnapped by Boko Haram since 2009, according to an estimate by the New York-based rights group.
Unknown scores of young men have also been kidnapped and forced to join the extremists as fighters. – (PA)