Boko Haram members on Thursday abducted 22 girls and women in two separate raids in north-east Nigeria.


The jihadists raided the village of Pulka near the border with Cameroon where they kidnapped 18 girls in the first attack.

'Boko Haram fighters from Mamman Nur camp arrived in pickup vans around 6am and seized 14 young girls aged 17 and below while residents fled into the bush,' a Pulka community leader told Newsmen.


'They picked four other girls who were fleeing the raid they came across in the bush outside the village,' said the community leader whose name was withheld for security purpose.


The second raid happened outside the village of Dumba, close to Lake Chad. The jihadists killed a herdsman who was trying to escape, after refusing to pay protection money, said Adamu Ahmed, a member of an anti-Boko Haram militia.


'When the Boko Haram gunmen came for the money they realised he had left with everything and they decided to go after him on their motorcycles,' Ahmed said. 'They caught up with him near Dumba where they slaughtered him and shot dead 50 of his cattle.


'They took four women from the man’s family and the rest of the herd,' he said.


A resident who confirmed the raid said the girls were likely to end up as brides of the Boko Haram fighters.