Boko Haram Takes 40 Boys Kidnapped In Borno Into Sambisa Forest

boko_haramResidents fleeing Malari village in Borno State on Saturday said that Boko Haram gunmen abducted 40 citizens on New Year’s eve.

The Agence France-Presse reports that the terrorists stormed Malari around 8pm and took away people, all males, aged between 10 and 23, into Sambisa Forest.

The news of the abductions came only days later, after residents, who fled the village arrived in Maiduguri, the state capital, late on Friday.

“They came in pick-up trucks armed with guns and gathered all the men in the village outside the home of the village chief where they preached to us before singling out 40 of our boys and taking them away”, Bulama Muhammad told AFP.

Malari lies 20 kilometres from the Sambisa forest and close to the town of Gwoza, which Boko Haram captured in June declaring it as part of their caliphate.

“My two sons and three nephews were among those taken away by the Boko Haram gunmen and we believe they are going to use them as conscripts”, Muhammad said.

There was no immediate reaction on the incident from the military in Maiduguri.

Residents of Malari and nearby villages fled, to avoid coming under further attacks and abductions by the insurgents, who have in their custody, over 200 girls, who they abducted from a Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State since last April.

One of the people who fled from a nearby village of Mulgwi, Alaramma Babagoni, said, “When we heard of the kidnap of 40 boys in Malari by Boko Haram, we decided to leave because we could be the next target. Boko Haram has been abducting young men from villages in the area because we are close to their stronghold in Sambisa Forest”. (AFP)