Boko Haram Reportedly Abducts More Girls Despite Cease-Fire Deal

By Scott Neuman / NPR

Published October 24, 2014 at 4:22 AM PDT

This story was published more than 9 years ago.

Earlier this month, people demonstrate in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, calling on the government to rescue girls taken from a secondary school in Chibok region in April. Now there are reports that militants of the extremist Boko Haram movement have kidnapped more girls.

As Nigeria awaits the release of more than 200 kidnapped school girls under a cease-fire deal with their Boko Haram captors, reports have come in that another 25 women and girls were abducted within a day of the truce being announced last Saturday.

The government in Abuja has condemned the latest reported abductions from two villages in the country's northeast Adamawa state by suspected militants from the extremist group.

NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton says the reported kidnappings came a day after the army claimed it had a deal with Boko Haram that included the release of more than 200 schoolgirls seized in April in Chibok in neighboring Borno state. Their plight has prompted international condemnation and mobilized the global #BringBackOurGirls protest campaign.

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The New York Times says:

"In the latest kidnapping, residents told the [Roman Catholic Bishop Stephen Mamza] that scores of gunmen on motorcycles stormed their village, Garta, on Saturday. Boko Haram has operated with near impunity for months in the mountainous region, with occasional reprisals from Nigeria's military.

"The gunmen burned houses in the village, slit the throats of four men and went house to house searching for young women, eventually taking away around 60, according to the bishop and local news reports."

Reuters reports: "In a separate attack, a bomb exploded late on Wednesday at a bus station in the town of Azare in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, killing at least five people and wounding 12, police said. They did not comment on who was behind the attack, although Boko Haram is likely to be the prime suspect."