Gunmen kidnap 20 Nigerian women

JOHANNESBURG – Gunmen abducted 20 women from a remote settlement in northeastern Nigeria as 272 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram continued to languish in captivity, according to news reports Monday.

The latest abductions follow dozens of kidnappings, attacks on villages and slayings of schoolboys and teachers since last year.

The 20 women were from the Fulani ethnic group, traditionally cattle herders, taken from the Garkin Fulani settlement, according to a member of a local vigilante group, Alhaji Tar, the Associated Press reported.

No group claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping, although it bore similarities to Boko Haram operations and the group was suspected.

Details of the attack are sketchy, but Tar said the gunmen drove up to the settlement at noon Thursday, ordered the women into vehicles at gunpoint and drove them off. They also took three men who tried to prevent them from taking the women.