It was gathered that the attack occurred last Friday, but the news made its way out after some of the survivors made their way to Maiduguri, the State capital.
Those kidnapped are said to be mostly women and children
Although no one has claimed it yet, the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which abducted more than 200 women in April from a secondary school in Chibok, only 24 km (15 miles) from this latest attack.
Its campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful”, has become the gravest threat to Africa’s biggest economy and top oil producer.
Thousands of people have been killed and many hundreds abducted, raising questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians, especially around the north Cameroon border where the militants are well established.
Maina Chibok, who did not witness the attack but is from Gumsuri and visited family there shortly afterwards, told Reuters that the insurgents came in pick-up trucks and sprayed the town with bullets from AK-47s and machine guns.
“They gathered the people, shot dead over 30 people and took away more than 100 women and children in two open-top trucks,” Chibok said. Burials of many of the victims had already happened, he added.
News from remote parts of Nigeria that are cut off from mobile communications sometimes takes days to emerge.
A security source confirmed that more than 100 had been abducted and said 35 people had been killed, including the district head.
“They also burnt down a government medical centre, houses and shops,” Chibok said.
A youth vigilante from the area called Aliyu Mamman also told Reuters by telephone that there was no security presence to stop the militants, who stayed in the town all night before leaving.
Nigeria sentenced 54 soldiers to death by firing squad for mutiny while fighting against insurgents in the northeast on Wednesday.
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