According to several reports, Boko Haram militants recently kidnapped up to 500 children from the Nigerian town of Damasak. The reports come after regional forces recaptured the town from the radical Islamic group, who controlled the area for months. A trader told Reuters, “They took 506 young women and children (in Damasak). They killed about 50 of them before leaving.” The man’s own wife and daughters were among those kidnapped. Details of the abductions are still not clear. According to witness reports to the BBC, “about 500 children aged 11 and under are missing,” though Reuters says the number is “more than 400 women and children.” Mass abductions have become a hallmark of the radical Islamic militant group which recently pledged allegiance to ISIS. Last spring, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 school-girls, many of whom were forced to convert to Islam and sold as sex slaves or made to marry Boko Haram fighters. There is also evidence that they may have used kidnapped children as suicide bombers …
