Nigeria Boko Haram Insurgency: Militants Kidnap 100 Boys and Men in Northeastern Town

Islamist militant group Boko Haram have kidnapped approximately 100 boys and men from a remote town in Nigeria's restive north-east region of Borno State, according to a vigilante group.

A member of the vigilante group, Hassan Ibrahim, told Bloomberg by phone from the Borno State capital of Maiduguri that the group's 10 August attack on the town of Doron Baga also left 10 people dead.

Ibrahim said he believed the men would now be "forcefully conscripted" to fight for the al-Qaeda-linked group who are designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK, US, and European Union.

Witnesses who fled the violent siege on the town confirmed to Reuters that dozens of males were loaded on to trucks and driven off. The destination of the kidnapped men is currently unknown.

The villagers also claimed 97 people are still unaccounted for. This could not be independently verified, though.

Three states - Borno, Yobe and Adamawa - have been under a state of emergency since May last year as Boko Haram's insurgency continues to blight the country's northern regions.

Attacks attributed to the group have occurred in north-eastern towns and cities such as Maiduguri and Kano but their reach has started to expand southwards with bomb blasts striking the Middle Belt cities of Jos and the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

The group, which wants to create an Islamic caliphate within Nigeria, kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April in the village of Chibok, bringing global attention to the west African nation's fight against terrorism.

According to Human Rights Watch, Boko Haram has killed at least 2,053 people since the start of 2014.