TheCable

Boko Haram has kidnapped 506 young women and children from Damasak, a town in Borno state Nigeria, Reuters is reporting.

The news agency quoted a resident who witnessed the abduction as saying that more than 50 were killed as the sect raided the northern Nigerian town.

“They took 506 young women and children. They killed about 50 of them before leaving,” Souleymane Ali, a trader in Damasak said.

“We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them.”

Toumba Mohamed, a lieutenant colonel with the Nigerien army, involved in the Damasak incursion of Niger-Chad forces, said residents had reported between 400 and 500 women and children kidnapped.

Last week, Niger-Chad forces recovered the town from Boko Haram, who had been in control of the town since November 2014.

Nigerien and Chadian troops, who also discovered a mass grave of Boko Haram victims just outside the town, also said Nigerian soldiers had refused to register presence in the town since its recovery.

In April 2014, the sect kidnapped more than 200 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok.