ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Islamic extremists have kidnapped 17 ladies in northeast Nigeria, witnesses mentioned Saturday because the West African nation’s army mentioned it “stays resolute in decisively countering the terrorists.”
Members of the Boko Haram jihadi group attacked Pemi, a village within the Chibok native authorities space of Borno state, on Thursday, two residents advised The Related Press. The state is the place Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency towards the Nigeria authorities has been concentrated.
In an announcement late Friday, the Islamic State group additionally claimed accountability for killing “many Christians” and setting hearth to 2 church buildings and several other homes throughout an assault on the Borno city of Bimi.
Authorities blame Boko Haram for the killing of tens of 1000's of individuals in Nigeria and neighboring international locations in West Africa.
The kidnapping of the women from Pemi recalled the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, a distant city located 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. Greater than 100 of the kidnapped college students stay lacking.
The militants focused a church and Christians after they stormed Pemi on Thursday, in accordance with native chief Hassan Chibok.
“They had been capturing sporadically after they rounded the group,” Chibok mentioned. “Some couldn't have entry to flee, so that they kidnapped 17 ladies.” Eight of the women got here from one family, he mentioned.
Nigeria’s army and authorities authorities didn't instantly reply the AP’s request for touch upon the abductions.
One other resident, Yana Galang, mentioned the extremists razed a church constructing and focused close by homes.
“A few of them (the kidnapped ladies) are 10, 11, 12 years,” Galang mentioned. “They only parked their automobile close to the compounds. You recognize, as youngsters, they only carried them and put them within the automobile.”
A Nigerian military spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, advised AP on Friday that the insurgents had been “determined” to develop their affect. He was commenting on a video from a Boko Haram offshoot which purported to indicate baby troopers executing Nigerian military personnel.
“Having been depleted by our troops, the imbroglio of their ranks and the huge surrendering of Boko Haram, the terrorists, in a determined transfer, are embarking on a recruitment drive to shore up their energy with baby troopers, who they may simply indoctrinate, manipulate and cheaply handle financially,” Nwachukwu mentioned.
The Islamic extremist rebels in northeast Nigeria — comprising Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) — stay “very, very harmful”, United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths mentioned this week.
The insurgency and its resultant humanitarian disaster, Griffiths advised the AP, is “very tough to discourage (and) a grave and clear and current hazard.”
Safety analysts have advised AP one of many challenges the Nigerian army normally faces in rooting out the rebels is their use of girls and kids as cowl throughout airstrikes.
“They've additionally conscripted youngsters, minors, who they have interaction as baby troopers and ladies, whom they use as intercourse slaves,” military spokesperson Nwachukwu mentioned.
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Related Press author Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report