At least 100 school girls were abducted by suspected members of Islamist extremist sect Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, police said on Tuesday.
The insurgents arrived in the early morning with a large truck at the girls’ school, located in the village of Chibok, and forced the pupils inside, according to local police spokesman Gideon Jibrin, who noted that some were able to escape.
Witnesses said the men then razed the entire village. “We have no figure of the casualties,” Jibrin told DPA .
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful”, has been active in the Muslim north of the West African country, carrying out attacks against government institutions and civilians.
Borno, the state the girls’ school is located in, is one of three northern states that Nigeria’s government placed under a state of emergency in May to curb violent attacks by Boko Haram.
On Monday, a major bomb blast, allegedly orchestrated by Boko Haram, killed scores of people in the capital, Abuja, while last week, more than 100 people were killed during Boko Haram attacks in Maiduguri.
Since 2009, more than 6,000 people have been killed in the violence.
