Boko Haram Kidnaps over 400 Children from Nigerian Town

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Mar 25, 2015

Boko Haram Kidnaps over 400 Children from Nigerian Town

Somewhere between 400 and 500 children have been kidnapped from a Nigerian town, according to civilians. While the exact number of kidnapped children is uncertain at this time, multiple news outlets have reported the abduction which occurred in the town of Damasak. 

Terrorist group Boko Haram carried out the mass abduction. 

A local trader told Reuters, “They took 506 young women and children. They killed about 50 of them before leaving. We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them."

Borno state senator Maina Maaji Lawan confirmed the kidnapping, the BBC reports. 

"The very young ones they give to madrassas [Islamic schools]… and male ones between 16 and 25, they conscript them and they indoctrinate them as supply channels for their horrible missions,” Lawan said. 

Boko Haram is also responsible for the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls from a Chibok school last April. Most of the girls were sold as sex slaves or married to Boko Haram militants. 

Publication date: March 25, 2015



Boko Haram Kidnaps over 400 Children from Nigerian Town