LAGOS ( Dozens of Youths Reported Kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria )

LAGOS – Around 100 youths have been kidnapped by suspected members of the radical Islamic militia Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian state of Borno, where four months ago the group abducted more than 200 girls, media reported Friday.

The kidnapping occurred last Sunday when gunmen stormed the Doron Baga community in an attack that also killed at least 10 people, witnesses quoted by the Nigerian newspaper The Punch said.

A witness, whose husband died in the attack, told the newspaper that gunmen attacked the village and kidnapped some 100 youths, prompting many residents to flee.

However, the kidnapping has not been confirmed by Nigerian authorities, who are still unaware of the whereabouts of the more than 200 girls abducted by the same group on April 14.

The extremist Islamic group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the girls and threatened to sell them if authorities did not release “terrorist” prisoners.

Borno is considered to be Boko Haram’s spiritual stronghold and the base of its operations, but the extremists are also active in the neighboring states of Adamawa and Yobe, where the Nigerian government has declared a state of emergency.

Since the killing of its founder, Mohamed Yusuf, in 2009 by police forces, Boko Haram has staged a bloody campaign that has claimed nearly 12,000 lives according to Government estimates.

Boko Haram, which in local language means “non-Islamic education is a sin,” is fighting to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country with a Muslim majority in the north and a predominantly Christian population in the south.