Witnesses: Extremists abduct 17 girls in northeast Nigeria

By CHINEDU ASADU
Associated Press

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Witnesses say Islamic extremists have abducted 17 girls in northeast Nigeria. Two residents told The Associated Press on Saturday that members of the Boko Haram jihadi group attacked a village in Borno state on Thursday. The state is where Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency against the Nigeria government has been concentrated. The abduction of the girls from Pemi recalled the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok. More than 100 of the Chibok students remain missing. In a statement late Friday, the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for killing “many Christians” and setting fire to two churches and several houses during an attack on the Borno town of Bimi.