A local community leader in northeastern Nigeria has told reporters that schoolgirls abducted by gunmen believed to be Boko Haram have taken the girls out of Nigerian to neighboring countries.

Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram abducted more than 300 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in Borno State on April 16 and are still holding majority of them as hostages despite effort by the government to get the girls freed. Only 43 of the girls are said to have been able to escape since the abduction.

The students were said to about to sit for their final year exam of their studies and are aged between 16 and 18.

There have been series of protest by women who daughters have been abducted against the government.

This unnamed community leader was quoted by local reporters as saying that the girls have been taken to Chad and Cameroon and some forced to marry the abductors.

“Some of them have been taken across Lake Chad and some have been ferried across the border into parts of Cameroon, we learned that one of the grooms brought his wife to a neighboring town in Cameroon and kept her there’’, he was quoted as saying.

Social commentators in the north of the country have said that the government has been very slow in responding to the abduction.

But the government has said that the security forces are still searching for the girls and will free the girls soon.

Many political analysts in Nigeria have accused President Jonathan of handling the Boko Haram crisis poorly. They say the army is poorly equipped to engage Boko Haram, making Boko Haram always gaining the upper hand over the military.

Almost 7,000 people have been killed while dozens and dozens of people have been left injured since Boko Haram began their militancy in 2009.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com

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