Boko Haram Attack: 32 Civilians Killed, Several Others Kidnapped In Northeast Nigeria

Boko Haram militants have killed 32 people and kidnapped several others, including women and children, in an attack on the village of Gumsuri in Nigeria’s restive northeast, local officials and a witness said Thursday, according to media reports. The officials reportedly said that the exact number of people abducted by the Islamist militant group was still unknown.

Officials reportedly said that details of the incident emerged Thursday as mobile phone networks in the area have been blocked, Agence France-Presse reported. The officials also reportedly said that the number of people kidnapped could be more than 100, but, the exact number is yet to be confirmed.

"After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters," Mukhtar Buba, a local resident who fled Gumsuri to the Borno state capital Maiduguri, said.

The village is nearly 40 miles south of Mauduguri and is also close to Chibok, where more than 200 students were abducted by the militant group in April. Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan had announced that the government had struck a ceasefire deal with Boko Haram to secure the release of the schoolgirls, whose kidnapping triggered global outrage. However, in a November video, the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, denied that any ceasefire had been agreed with the government and said that the kidnapped girls had been "married off" to militants.

The news of the latest attack comes a day after a Nigerian military court sentenced 54 soldiers to death after they were convicted of mutiny. The soldiers had reportedly refused to deploy for an operation against Boko Haram, the Islamist group that has been fighting an insurgency in the country's north since 2009.