LAGOS: Nigeria’s government on Wednesday denied reports of a mass kidnapping in the country’s northeast, as Boko Haram militants flee a four-nation military offensive.
“There is no fresh kidnapping in Damasak,” Nigeria’s national security spokesman Mike Omeri told AFP, referring to the town recently retaken by forces from neighbouring Chad and Niger.
Reports suggested that the Islamist militants, who seized the town in Borno state earlier this year, made off with hundreds of children as they fled the troops’ advance.