Report: 22 girls, women ‘abducted’ by Boko Haram

22 girls and women have been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from two Borno villages, The Guardian reports.

The first attack took place on Thursday, in Pulka, a town between Gwoza and Bama.

18 girls were said to have been abducted in Pulka.

“Boko Haram fighters from Mamman Nur camp arrived in pickup vans around 6am and seized 14 young girls aged 17 and below while residents fled into the bush,” a Pulka community leader was quoted as saying.

“They picked four other girls who were fleeing the raid they came across in the bush outside the village.”

Four women were reportedly abducted in the second attack which took place in Dumba, a village close to Lake Chad.

Adamu Ahmed, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia, was quoted as saying that the insurgents killed a herdsman who failed to pay “protection money”.

“When the Boko Haram gunmen came for the money they realised he had left with everything and they decided to go after him on their motorcycles,” Ahmed said.

“They caught up with him near Dumba where they slaughtered him and shot dead 50 of his cattle. They took four women from the man’s family and the rest of the herd.”

The attackers were said to belong to the Boko Haram faction headed by Abu Musab Al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf.

ISIS, in August 2016, named Barnawi as replacement of Abubakar Shekau.