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Hopes for peace vanished after five people were killed in a bomb attack this morning at a bus station in Azari, in the State of Bauchi (northern Nigeria), and the abduction of 60 girls in the State of Adamawe.
According to the local press, 40 girls were kidnapped in Waga Mangoro, and another 20 in Garta in two attacks during which several houses were burned.
In recent days, rumors had spread about a possible ceasefire agreement between the Government of Abuja and the Islamist group Boko Haram with the release of the 219 girls abducted in Chibok in April.
The news of the new kidnappings came as Parliament in Abuja was approving the request of President Goodluck Jonathan of a billion dollars in emergency funds to buy arms to fight Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that people who escaped this week from Bama, a town in a part of northeastern Nigeria where Boko Haram has declared an Islamic caliphate, say hundreds of residents are being detained for allegedly breaking the group’s strict version of Shariah law.
Residents who got out of Bama said so many people have been detained by Boko Haram that the local jail is overcrowded and houses are being used as makeshift prisons. Many young men have been forced to joinBoko Haram, and those who refuse are killed, said those who ran away.
People are jailed after brief "trials" for infringements like smoking cigarettes, said Amina Bukar, a middle-aged woman who said she hiked through the bush for five days before reaching Maiduguri, the Borno state capital 75 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) away.
Food is running short since shops have been looted by Boko Haram, said Bukar. "Water also is very scarce, sometimes you line up (at the communal tap) for 24 hours," she said.
And today we celebrate...