Militants abducted as many as 40 boys and men from a village in northwest Nigeria this week in a raid that authorities have reportedly blamed on Boko Haram, the Islamist group that kidnapped over 250 school girls (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/world/africa/boko-haram-in-nigeria.html) last year.
The victims, taken from the northeastern Nigerian village of Malari this week, are believed to be in their teens and early 20s, according to a witness, Reuters reports (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/02/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN0KB1A020150102).
Boko Haram, which hasn't yet claimed the latest abduction, has kidnapped hundreds of women and girls (http://features.hrw.org/features/HRW_2014_report/Those_Terrible_Weeks_in_Their_Camp/index.html) from northern Nigeria during its five-year insurgency. Fifty-seven of the 276 school girls kidnapped in April have escaped, while parents of the remaining victims recently appealed (http://www.newsweek.com/parents-abducted-nigerian-girls-appeal-un-296346) to the United Nations for help in the rescue efforts.
According to Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/02/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN0KB1A020150102), "Boys are recruited as fighters and the girls as intercourse slaves, security officials say."(http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=time.com&blog=1359921&post=3652795&subd=timedotcom&ref=&feed=1)