Boko Haram gunmen kidnap 185 in Nigeria

Boko Haram gunmen kidnap 185 in Nigeria

More than 185 people, including women and children, have been kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters in northeast Nigeria.

Gunmen killed 32 people during the attack in the remote village of Gumsuri in Borno state - the latest in a string of abductions by the Islamist group.

In April, Boko Haram, whose name means 'Western education is sinful', abducted more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok, only 15 miles from Gumsuri.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who is standing for re-election in February, promised the Chibok attack would be the end of terrorism in Nigeria, but violence has escalated.

The Islamists have carried out a series of abductions since then, boosting their supply of child fighters and young women who are reportedly used as sex slaves.

They have killed more than 13,000 people and forced more than 1.5 million people from their homes during their five-year uprising.

Northeast Nigeria has been the centre of the conflict, but violence has also spread to neighbouring Cameroon, where the military claimed to have killed 116 Boko Haram fighters in the border town of Amchide.

Witnesses said a convoy of heavily armed men raided Gumsuri on Sunday, throwing petrol bombs and destroying much of the village.

News of the attack took four days to emerge because the mobile phone network is down and many roads are impassable.

Mukhtar Buba, a resident who fled to nearby Maiduguri, said: 'After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters.'

Hostages were driven away in pick-up trucks towards Sambisa Forest, a Boko Haram stronghold, where the Chibok schoolgirls were also reportedly taken before being divided into smaller groups.

Vigilantes had defended Gumsuri against waves of previous Islamist attacks, but were overpowered on Sunday, local officials said.

The Nigerian military has left much of the frontline fighting to vigilantes and hunters who have few guns and almost no training.

An army court martial on Wednesday sentenced 54 soldiers to death for mutiny after they refused to deploy for an operation against Boko Haram, blaming a lack of weapons.

Soldiers on the ground claim they have been used as cannon fodder in battles against militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy artillery.

Nigeria is Africa's largest economy and biggest oil producer and reports of troops sent to fight with basic weapons and equipment have sparked outrage.

'The oath of office taken by ... soldiers is not a licence to commit suicide,' said Femi Falana, a defence lawyer for the mutineers, who described the death sentences as an outrage.

Earlier this month, more than 150 people, including 44 police and security troops, were killed in a Boko Haram raid on the northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu.

Source: Sky News