More than 300 people, including women and children, have been abducted by Islamic militants who attacked a town in northeastern Nigeria, officials have said.
Militant fighters stormed the town of Ngoshe in Borno state on Friday, Bulama Sawa, an official from the Gwoza area said.
No group has claimed responsibility, but it was likely in retaliation for the killing of three commanders of the Boko Haram militant group by Nigeria’s military, he said.
Separate attacks also took place in the communities of Konduga, Marte, Jakana and Mainok between Wednesday and Friday, according to military spokesman Uba Sani.
He said troops repelled those attacks, but a “number of brave soldiers paid the supreme price in the line of duty”, along with a senior officer.
He did not elaborate on military casualties and there was no detail on casualties resulting from the incident.
Mr Sani described the assaults as “failed attacks” which illustrated the “increasing desperation of terrorist elements under sustained operational pressure” across the theatre.
Mass kidnappings are increasingly common in Nigeria, with armed gangs targeting remote communities where security and government presence is limited.
Ulf Laessing, from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation think tank, said the military struggles to control large parts of the country where jihadi groups operate.
Militants are also using drones to scout out targets and benefiting from increased cross-border cooperation between groups, he said, adding the army “is fighting a ghost – fighters descending with motorbikes on villages and disappearing into the bush before the army can respond in time”.
Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group and known as Islamic State West Africa Province.
There is also the IS-linked Lakurawa, as well as other “bandit” groups that specialise in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining.
Recently, the crisis has worsened to include other militants from the neighboring Sahel region, including the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil last year.
In January, armed bandits kidnapped more than 150 Christians in simultaneous attacks on a number of churches in the west African country.
Read more on Sky News:
UK ‘warned about attacks on Iran’
Russia suspected in UK attacks
Global economy’s ‘worst nightmare’
In November, gunmen abducted more than 300 pupils and 12 staff from a Catholic school in Niger state.
Some escaped; others were rescued while the remaining 130 children being held were freed just before Christmas.
Several thousand people in Nigeria have been killed, according to data from the United Nations.
Analysts say not enough is being done by the government to protect its citizens.
