RABAT, January 3. /TASS/. Militants of radical Islamist armed group Boko Haram attacked the village of Malari, north-eastern Nigeria, kidnapping at least 40, including teenagers, local authorities said on Friday.

“The majority of hostages are young men aged from 15 to 23,” eyewitnesses said.

Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped several hundreds, including little children, for the last year. In particular, extremists have captured more than 200 schoolgirls from a lyceum in the city of Chibok in April 2014.

Radical Islamist grouping Boko Haram seeks to create an Islamic Khalifat in north-eastern Nigeria, West Africa, and introduce rules of Islamic law Sharia. For several last years its militants have been actually waging a war against state authorities, picking up facilities related to the army and police as targets and assaulting elders and leaders of religious communities as well as civilians.

More than 13 thousand were killed, another around 1.5 million turned in displaced persons and refugees in Boko Haram terrorist actions staged in Nigeria for the last five years.

For the last few months the grouping has intensified its offensive actions spreading them on Cameroon and Chad in Central Africa.