Boko Haram Militants Abduct 400 Women, Children In N'East Damasak

A trader called Souleymane Ali said,  "We don't know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them."

  

Ali said his wife and three of his daughters were among those seized.

"Two of them were supposed to get married this year. (Boko Haram) said 'They are slaves so we're taking them because they belong to us'," he said.

Also Mohamed Ousmane, another trader, said the militants took his two wives and three of their children.

A 40-year-old resident who gave her name as Fana said fighters had rounded up captives in the main mosque before taking them out of town. She said she saved her two children by hiding them in her house.

Boko Haram wants to carve out a caliphate in northern Nigeria. A sharp increase in violence forced a delay in planned elections last month in Africa's most populous country.