Boko Haram: 200 women and children kidnapped in Nigeria

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The UN announced on Wednesday that these are internally displaced persons, i.e. people who are fleeing within the country. An exact number of those abducted is not known.

The mass kidnapping took place last Thursday, February 29, in Borno State. The victims, mostly women and children, were kidnapped when they ventured outside the camp for internally displaced persons in search of firewood, the UN statement said. “Although an unspecified number of elderly women and children under the age of 10 have been released, scores of internally displaced persons remain missing,” said UN Coordinator for Nigeria Mohamed Malick Fall.

Boko Haram active in the region

The jihadist terror group Boko Haram has been active in northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade and the violence has claimed more than 350,000 lives and displaced three million people. Murders, kidnappings, forced recruitment and sexual and gender-based violence continue to occur. According to the United Nations, women and children are disproportionately affected.

The mass kidnapping of people, sometimes from schools and camps for internally displaced persons, is part of Boko Haram’s violent crackdown to impose strict Islamic rule in Nigeria. In April 2014, Boko Haram caused global horror with the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls. Ten years after the incident, more than a hundred girls are still missing. (SDA)

Source: Blick