[An Nahar] Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Islamists have kidnapped 22 girls and women in two separate raids in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
, residents and vigilantes told AFP Friday.
In the first attack on Thursday, the jihadists raided the village of Pulka near border with Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
where they kidnapped 18 girls.
"Boko Haram fighters from Mamman Nur camp arrived in pickup vans around 6:00 am and seized 14 maidens aged 17 and below while residents fled into the bush," a Pulka community leader told AFP by phone.
"They picked four other girls who were fleeing the raid they came across in the bush outside the village," said the community leader who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
According to the official, the attackers were loyal to the faction headed by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf.
Barnawi was appointed last year by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group to replace leader Abubakar Shekau
... the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fire by the Caliph and refused to step down ...
, who had pledged allegiance to the Middle East jihadist group in 2015.
Another resident confirmed the raid and said the girls were likely to end up as brides for the fighters.
"They didn't harm anyone during the raid and they made no attempt to shoot people running away from the village," said the resident.
In the second incident outside the village of Dumba, close to Lake Chad, the jihadists killed a herdsman who had tried to escape after refusing to pay protection money, said Adamu Ahmed, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia.
"When the Boko Haram gunnies came for the money they realised he had left with everything and they decided to go after him on their cycle of violences," Ahmed said.
"They caught up with him near Dumba where they slaughtered him and rubbed out 50 of his cattle.
"They took four women from the man's family and the rest of the herd," he said.
The promotion of Barnawi had revealed divisions in the group, as Shekau had been criticised for mass killings and suicide kabooms against civilians.
Barnawi and his right-hand man Mamman Nur, who is seen as the real leader, had promised residents in areas under their control would not be harmed as long as they did not cooperate with Nigerian troops fighting Boko Haram.
But in recent weeks the Islamist fighters have intensified raids in areas near Lake Chad, stealing food from residents.