Boko Haram fighters hoist flag in Niger State and ‘forcefully acquire wives’

Boko Haram fighters have reportedly hoisted their Islamist flag in a regional district of the Niger State and seized the wives of fleeing residents.

I am confirming that we have Boko Haram elements in Niger State, around Kaure, Niger State Governor Abubakar Bello said.

They have taken over the territory … They have installed their flag.

He said 3000 people have been ousted from their communities by Boko Haram and other criminal gangs.

Their towns have been taken over by bandits and Boko Haram elements … Their wives have been seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members, CNN quoted the governor as saying.

It comes amid reports that at least 31 Nigerian soldiers were killed when jihadists ambushed a military convoy escorting weapons and overran a base in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state on Monday.

Fighting between the army and jihadists in the Lake Chad region also left at least 12 Chadian soldiers dead on Tuesday, a provincial governor told AFP.

Boko Haram is an Islamist insurgency based primarily in northern Nigeria that aims to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by sharia law.

Founded in 2002, the group has been aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and employs brutal terror tactics.

The group infamously kidnapped 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls from Chibo in 2014. Some were forced to convert to Islam and sex slavery. An unknown number of girls managed to escape however at least 100 are still missing.

Mainok, about 50km from Maiduguri, has been repeatedly targeted by the jihadists who have waged a decade-long jihadist insurgency in the region, killing 36,000 people and displacing around two million from their homes.