Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped more than 100 women and children and killed 35 people during a Sunday raid on the remote northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri, a security source said on Thursday.
The five-year-old campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful", has become the greatest menace to the security of Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer.
Thousands of people have been killed and many hundreds abducted, raising questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians.
“They gathered the people, shot dead over 30 people and took away more than 100 women and children in two open-top trucks,” said Maina Chibok, who did not witness the attack but is from Gumskiri and visited family there shortly afterwards.
Although no one has claimed it yet, the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which in a similar assault abducted more than 200 women in April from a secondary school in Chibok, very near this latest attack on the Cameroon border.
“They also burnt down a government medical centre, houses and shops,” Chibook said.
A security source confirmed that more than 100 had been abducted and said 35 people had been killed, including the district head.
Reuters