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Boko Haram abducts 185, kills 33 in attack

It took four days for survivors to walk to a nearby village to report the incident.

By Ed Adamczyk
Victims of a Boko Haram raid in April 2014 (CC/ wikimedia.org/ Voice of America)
Victims of a Boko Haram raid in April 2014 (CC/ wikimedia.org/ Voice of America)

CHIBOK , Nigeria, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Officials say 32 people were killed and 185 women and children were abducted when Boko Haram militants attacked a northeastern Nigerian village, earlier this week.

Reports of the incident on Sunday took four days to emerge because of the isolation of the village of Gumsuri, north of Chibok, and because local telecommunications were disabled by previous attacks. Information emerged after survivors traveled to the city of Maiduguri. Some news reports mentioned the attack came in the village of Bintiri.

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"They gathered the women and children and took them away in trucks after burning most of the village with petrol bombs," CNN reported a local government official saying. The militants, who arrived in two pickup trucks and on foot, set fire to the village's market area and about 50 homes after the assault.

Attacks have increased in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe provinces, all in northeastern Nigeria, since the provinces were put under emergency rule conditions in 2012. The area includes the village where over 200 school girls were kidnapped in April; despite the global outrage over the incident, they have not been found, despite the military assistance of China, France and the United States. The attack shows the weaknesses in defending the villages, despite promises by the Nigerian government of soldiers reinforced by air power.

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