100 boys kidnapped by Nigerian terrorists to become child soldiers

Fighters from the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram have reportedly abducted nearly 100 boys and men during a raid on a village in the country's northeast, witnesses reported.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Villagers who escaped the August 17 raid on Doron Baga said that the gunmen burned several houses and that 97 people are unaccounted for. The witnesses also said that six men were killed.

No child should have to kill, pray for the safety of these poor boys.

"They left no men or boys in the place; only young children, girls and women," said Halima Adamu, one of the villagers. "They were shouting 'Allah Akbar' (God is greatest), shooting sporadically. There was confusion everywhere. They started parking our men and boys into their vehicles, threatening to shoot whoever disobey them. Everybody was scared."

Nigerian military spokesman Gen. Chris Olukolade posted on Twitter that he was unable to confirm the abductions.

In November of 2013, Human Rights Watch accused Boko Haram, an Islamist anti-western and anti-government group, of using children-some as young as 12-as fighters.

The latest incident comes four months after the group, which has been fighting for the creation of a Sharia Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria since 2009, abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok and threatened to sell them into slavery. Many of the girls managed to escape the terrorists, but most still remain missing since the April kidnappings.

Boko Haram is seen as the number one security threat to Africa's top economy and oil producer and has dramatically increased their attacks on civilians in the past year, which has resulted in rapidly waning support for the movement. So far in 2014, more than 4,000 Nigerians-the majority of whom are civilians-have been killed by Boko Haram, Amnesty International reports.

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