The Associated Press quoted eyewitnesses that the extremist group attacked, on Thursday, the town of Bimi in Chibok district in Borno state, where Boko Haram’s decade-long insurgency against the Nigerian government has focused.
In a statement issued on Friday evening, ISIS also claimed responsibility for killing several Christians and setting fire to two churches and several homes during an attack on the town of Bimi in Borno state.
Authorities blame Boko Haram for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Nigeria and neighboring countries in West Africa.
The kidnapping of the girls from Bimi brings to mind the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 from the remote Chibok district, 130 kilometers south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. More than 100 abductees are still missing.
The gunmen targeted a church and Christians when they stormed Bimi on Thursday, according to district leader Hassan Chibok.
“They were firing intermittently after cordoning off the area,” Chibok said. Some could not escape, so they kidnapped 17 girls,” he said, noting that eight girls belong to the same family.
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