Abuja, June 24 (IANS): At least 30 people have been killed and over 60 women and children abducted in Nigeria's Borno state, media reports said Tuesday.
Residents and officials said over 60 women and children have been abducted in Nigeria by suspected militants, BBC reported Tuesday. The abductions are said to have occurred during a series of raids over the past weekend on villages in Borno.
However, Xinhua reported at least 30 people were killed in separate attacks in four villages of Damboa in the restive state and at least 60 girls and women have been reported missing following the four-day attack.
Moses Mbaya, a survivor of the attack, said early last week that suspicion arose about an impending attack when some unidentified men stormed a local market to buy food items in bulk.
"They were suspected to be Boko Haram members," Mbaya said.
The Islamist group Boko Haram, still holding over 200 girls whom it captured in Borno's Chibok town April 14, wants the release of its fighters and their relatives, in exchange for the girls.
The government, however, has rejected the demand.
Boko Haram, the outlawed group blamed for thousands of killings and kidnappings in Nigeria since 2009, seeks to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law in the constitution of the West African country.