Again, Boko Haram kidnaps over 400 women, children in Damasak

While the Nigerian military is still basking in the euphoria of defeating the dreaded Boko Haram sect by recapturing most of the towns and cities in their territory few days to the elections, reports reaching The Mega StarNews on Tuesday said the sect  has kidnapped more than 400 women and children from the northern town of Damasak that was freed this month by troops from Niger and Chad.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the figure, but the Islamist group has previously carried out mass kidnappings.

Boko Haram’s abduction last April of nearly 300 schoolgirls in the region stirred international outrage and drew global attention to the group’s six-year insurgency

“They took 506 young women and children (in Damasak). They killed about 50 of them before leaving,” a trader called Souleymane Ali told Reuters in the town. “We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them.”