It Happened Again: More Than 100 Girls Abducted

Boko Haram blamed for mass kidnapping in Nigeria
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 23, 2018 8:58 AM CST
It Happened Again: More Than 100 Girls Abducted
In this image taken from video, Lai Muhammed, Nigerian Minister of Information, speaks to the media in Dapchi, Yobe State, Nigeria, on Thursday Feb. 22, 2018.   (AP Photo)

Hopes are fading for more than 100 girls who remain missing four days after Boko Haram extremists attacked their village in northern Nigeria. New eyewitness accounts indicate that the fighters targeted the girls' school, and some students were seen being taken away at gunpoint, per the AP. The Dapchi attack presents Nigeria's government with its most wrenching challenge since the Chibok mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 that shocked the world.

Information Minister Lai Muhammed, who visited the town on Thursday, says authorities still need more time to figure out what has happened. However, parents of the missing children already have compiled a list of 101 girls who remain unaccounted for following the Monday night ambush. Some witnesses said the gunmen specifically asked where the girls' school was located. The government initially said that 76 girls had been rescued, but have since said they remain missing, reports Reuters.

(More Boko Haram stories.)

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