Boko Haram kidnaps dozens of children across the border in Cameroon

Boko Haram has kidnapped many people in Nigeria including more than 200 girls from a school last April

Suspected militants from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have kidnapped dozens of people in raids in neighbouring Cameroon, officials say.

They said many of those kidnapped in the cross border attack against villages were children. Four villagers who tried to fend off the attackers were killed, a security source has told the BBC.

 
Boko Haram has seized control of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria, and begun threatening neighbouring nations.
Chad, which also borders Nigeria, has just sent soldiers to help Cameroon in the fight against the jihadists.
The BBC's Randy Joe Sa'ah in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, says this is the first time Cameroonian villagers have been kidnapped by suspected militants.
Previous kidnappings in Cameroon blamed on Boko Haram have been more targeted - with high-profile people or foreigners reportedly taken for ransom, he says.
'Burnt to ashes' A security source told the BBC that it was the villages of Maki and Mada in the Tourou district near Mokolo city in Cameroon's Far North region, about 6km (four miles) from the Nigerian border, that came under attack.