Nigeria's government today denied reports of a mass kidnapping in the country's northeast, as Boko Haram militants flee a four-nation military offensive.
"There is no fresh kidnapping in Damasak," Nigeria's national security spokesman Mike Omeri told AFP, referring to the town recently retaken by forces from neighbouring Chad and Niger.
Reports suggested that the Islamist militants, who seized the town in Borno state earlier this year, made off with hundreds of children as they fled the troops' advance.
But Omeri said Nigeria had no information about a mass abduction. A senator who represents the area and a senior intelligence source also cast doubt on the reports.
The contradictory claims shed light on the difficulty of establishing facts in the brutal, six-year conflict, with communications infrastructure devastated in the northeast and travel restricted.
Officials, the military and locals frequently give contrasting information.
The militants do have a track record of mass kidnappings, however, including the high-profile abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in April last year from the Borno town of Chibok.
Details about the kidnapping were muddied for weeks by military and official denials of details reported by the affected families.
