Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped at least 20 young mothers near a town in northeast Nigeria where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted nearly two months ago, sources said today.
There were conflicting reports of how many women were abducted from the nomadic settlement near Chibok in Borno state, with one local leader putting the number as high as 40.
But the latest kidnappings, which happened on Saturday in and around the village of Garkin Fulani, eight kilometres (five miles) from Chibok, were the latest in a spate in the area.
The abduction of 276 schoolgirls on April 14 was Boko Haram's most daring kidnapping in its five-year insurgency. It attracted worldwide attention and prompted an international rescue effort.
"Available information revealed that the gunmen came around noon (1100 GMT) and abducted 20 women and three young men left to keep watch on the village," said Alhaji Tar, of a local vigilante group.
"All the males in the settlement were away in the bush with their herd (of cattle) for grazing when the abductors came to the village."
There was no immediate indication of where the women were taken and there had been no contact from the kidnappers, but a source at the National Human Rights Commission said no children were seized.
The women were aged between 15 and 30, the source added.
A local official of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) said 40 young mothers were singled out and put into vehicles before being driven to an unknown location.
MACBAN is the umbrella organisation of the nomadic Fulani cattle herders in Nigeria.
Similar kidnappings for ransom have been going on in the area for some time but locals were too afraid to speak out in fear of reprisals from the Islamist militants, the official said.
"This is not the first time women are being kidnapped in this area and only released when we pay cattle ransom to the kidnappers. It has happened several times," said the official.
"They come and go door-to-door bringing women outside and select young women and take them away in their vehicles and demand between 30 and 40 cows for their release", he explained.
