Militants kidnap up to 200 people in Nigeria

Boko Haram suspected of latest attack

Militants have kidnapped up to 200 people, including women and children, and killed about 35 other people during a raid on the northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri. The attack took place in the troubled Borno state, a stronghold of the Islamist rebels, on 14 December but due to the village's remote location it was days before news reached the outside world.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, and which occurred just 25 km from Chibok where the militants abducted 200 schoolgirls in April.

The Gumsuri attack is the latest in a series of atrocities by militants, mainly in Nigeria's northern Borno and Yube states. More than 2,000 people have been killed in militant violence in 2014, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria.

The name Boko Haram translates as "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, and its militants frequently attack schools, abducting hundreds of students and killing thousands.