Suspected Boko Haram Gunmen Kidnap Over 100 Women, Children in Nigeria
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Date: 12/18/2014 9:21:48 PM
Sender: VOA
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Gumsuri, Nigeria
MAIDUGURI—
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped more than 100 women and children and killed 35 other people on Sunday during a raid on the remote northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri, a security source and resident said on Thursday.
News of the attack took several days to emerge because the area＇s mobile phone network was damaged in earlier attacks.
Although no one has claimed responsibility yet, the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which abducted more than 200 women in April from a secondary school in Chibok, only 24 kilometers (15 miles) from this latest attack.
Its campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful,” has become the gravest threat to Africa＇s biggest economy and top oil producer.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is up for re-election on February 14, had pledged that the Chibok school attack would mark the beginning of the end of terrorism in Nigeria, but violence has escalated since.
Toll from campaign
Thousands of people have been killed and many hundreds abducted, raising questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians, especially around the north Cameroon border where the militants are well established.
CNN television quotes a Gumsuri resident as saying gunmen approached the village from two directions, firing heavy machine guns and torching homes with gasoline fires.
Maina Chibok, who did not witness the attack but is from Gumsuri and visited family there shortly afterwards, said the insurgents came in pickup trucks and sprayed the town with bullets from AK-47s and machine guns.
“They gathered the people, shot dead over 30 people and took away more than 100 women and children in two open-top trucks,” Chibok said. Burials of many of the victims had already happened, he added.
News from remote parts of Nigeria that are cut off from mobile communications sometimes takes days to emerge.
Those who fled the village said it was too dangerous to head directly to Maiduguri, which is 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Gumsuri.
Instead, they told the French news agency AFP that they traveled several hundred kilometers in the opposite direction to connect with the main road that leads to the state capital.
A security source confirmed that more than 100 had been abducted and said 35 people had been killed, including the district head.
“They also burnt down a government medical center, houses and shops,” Chibok said.
Vigilantes, who have support from the military, had defended Gumsuri against previous Islamist attacks but were ultimately overpowered on Sunday, local officials told AFP.
Increase in abductions
The abductions have gained in frequency this year. A man who said he is Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau last month rejected comments by the government it was in talks to free the Chibok girls, saying he had in fact “married them off” to Boko Haram commanders, in a video posted on the Internet.
The military, which does not usually comment on security developments in the northeast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Sunday＇s incident.
A youth vigilante from the area called Aliyu Mamman told Reuters by telephone that there was no security presence to stop the militants, who stayed in the town all night before leaving.
Nigeria sentenced 54 soldiers to death by firing squad for mutiny while fighting against insurgents in the northeast on Wednesday.
Nigerian troops have complained they have insufficient firepower and supplies to fight Boko Haram in its northeastern stronghold.
Cameroon＇s army killed 116 Boko Haram militants on Wednesday when they attacked a base in the Far North region of the country, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday. |
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