ABUJA: At least 47 women are missing after jihadists carried out a mass kidnapping in northeast Nigeria, anti-jihadist militia leaders told AFP on Tuesday.
They blamed Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for Friday's attack in Borno state, the heart of a jihadist insurgency which has left more than 40,000 people dead and two million displaced since 2009.
Anti-jihadist militia leader Shehu Mada said women from displacement camps in Ngala near the Cameroon border were gathering firewood when they were "rounded up by ISWAP insurgents".
"Some of the women were able to escape and return," said Mada, who helped conduct a headcount. "Forty-seven women from the wood-collecting mission could not be accounted for. They were kidnapped by the jihadists."
Usman Hamza, another anti-jihadist militia leader, confirmed the account, saying, "47 women... didn't return after the insurgents swooped on them."
Borno State police spokesman Nahum Daso Kenneth said an attack took place at around 4 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday, but the police could not give a precise figure for the number kidnapped or still in captivity.
Ali Bukar, an officer at the Ngala Local Government Information Unit, said he had received reports the number was even higher.
Kidnapping is a major problem across Nigeria, which is also grappling with criminal militias in the northwest and a flareup of intercommunal violence in central states.
Last month kidnappers seized at least 35 women returning from a wedding in northwestern Katsina state.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power last year promising to address insecurity in Nigeria, but critics say the violence is out of control.