LAGOS
Suspected Boko Haram militants on Monday night abducted scores of young girls from a government school in Nigeria's northern Borno State.
"Gunmen stormed the place with their vehicles and started conveying the girls," a highly-placed government official, asking not to be named, told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
"While vehicles were loading some, others were going around gathering more girls from the hostel," he said.
The perpetrators stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, located on the fringes of Sambisa Forest – a known Boko Haram hideout – at around 10pm Monday.
"The vehicles were going and coming back to carry more," the official said.
"I heard that 130 [girls] were abducted. Some people are talking about 150," he added. "It is a very demoralizing situation."
Chibok resident Yusuf Ndirbimta also confirmed the abductions.
"They came in several pickup vans," he told AA by phone. "But I'm not sure [about] the number of girls taken away."
"They were taking them in batches," he added, collaborating the account given by the official.
"They burnt down the school. They killed the security guards, including a policeman and a soldier," Ndirbimta said.
Attempts to contact army spokesman Chris Olukolade were not successful. He neither answered his phone nor replied to text messages.
Borno Police Chief Lawan Tanko also confirmed the Chibok incident to local reporters in state capital Maiduguri, but declined to provide the total number of abductees.
Some local newspapers put the number at nearly 200, but failed to provide a source for the figure.
By Rafiu Ajakaye
englishnews@aa.com.tr
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
