Report: Boko Haram Abducts 2,000 Women and Girls Since Start of 2014

The terrorist organization Boko Haram has abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the start of 2014, according to a new report released to mark the first anniversary of the group’s notorious kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.

Many of the thousands of abducted women have been sold into sex slavery and trained for battle since 2014, the Amnesty International report found. Men and boys have also been taken to join in the Islamist extremist group’s fighting across Nigeria.

Boko Haram has killed at least 5,500 Nigerians during the past year, the report said. The group boasts about 15,000 fighters whose tactics include taking kidnapped women and girls to remote camps where they are introduced to the group’s version of the Islamic faith. From there they can be either married off to fighters or trained to join them. Either way, according to interviews in the report, women and girls can fall victim to brutalization and rape.

Amnesty International is hopeful that a new government in Nigeria, elected in March, will offer a fresh approach to combating the group, which it says has not been properly investigated and prosecuted thus far.

Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari promised to crack down on the group Tuesday. “We hear the anguish of our citizens and intend to respond accordingly,” his statement said.