Boko Haram Kidnaps Over 500 Women, Children In Damasak, Kills 50

Residents of the recently recaptured Damasak town in Borno State have said that Boko Haram militants have kidnapped more than 500 women and children from the town, according to report by the Hausa service of the BBC.

Damasak, which was freed this month by troops from Niger and Chad, has again suffered an invasion and kidnapping of women and children by the terrorists.

“They took 506 young women and children (in Damasak); they killed about 50 of them before leaving. We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them,” a resident simply identified as Malam Ali told the agency.

“My wife and three of my daughters were among those seized; two of them were supposed to get married this year. Boko Haram said they are slaves, so they are taking them because they belong to them,” he said.

“We’ve seen the worst possible things you can imagine; after a certain point there was no point in trying to leave. They killed all our friends, our family members, so we just submitted ourselves to God.”

A 40-year-old resident who gave her name as Fana said the insurgent’s had rounded up captives in the main mosque before taking them out of town. She said she saved her two children by hiding them in her house.

Troops from Niger and Chad last week found the bodies of at least 70 people in an apparent execution site under a bridge leading out of Damasak, where the streets remain strewn with debris and burnt-out cars after the fighting to liberate the town.

Nigerian, Chadian and Niger forces have driven militants out of a string of towns in simultaneous offensives over the past month.

According to Reuters news agency, Niger troops had distributed food to a handful of residents who remained in Damasak; few others returned to check their houses but left for the bush again. (Leadership)