Boko Haram kidnaps 40 boys in Borno

Residents fleeing Malari village in Borno State said on Saturday that the Boko Haram insurgents abducted 40 citizens on New Year’s eve.

The Agence France-Presse reports that the terrorists stormed Malari around 8pm and took away people, all males, aged between 10 and 23, into Sambisa Forest.

The news of the abductions came only days later, after residents who fled the village arrived in Maiduguri, the state capital, late on Friday.

“They came in pick-up trucks armed with guns and gathered all the men in the village outside the home of the village chief where they preached to us before singling out 40 of our boys and taking them away,” Bulama Muhammad told AFP.

“My two sons and three nephews were among those taken away by the Boko Haram gunmen and we believe they are going to use them as conscripts,” Muhammad said.

There was no immediate comment on the incident from the military in Maiduguri.

Residents of Malari and nearby villages fled, fearing further attacks and abductions.

Boko Haram has recently been seizing young men during raids on villages to use as foot soldiers in its uprising aimed at establishing an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, residents said.