Nigerian security forces are investigating a possible mass kidnapping of villagers in the same state where Boko Haram Islamist militants abducted more than 200 schoolgirls two months ago, a security source told Reuters on Tuesday. Military officials are looking into reports that suspected militant Islamists raided three villages in Borno over the weekend, the source added. The report could not immediately be confirmed by NBC News.

Nigerian media reported on Tuesday that as many as 91 villagers had been abducted, most of them women and young girls. Reuters was unable to verify these accounts independently. If confirmed, the latest abduction will fuel public frustration over the authorities' inability to contain Boko Haram's five-year campaign to carve out an Islamist state in the mainly Muslim north. The movement has recently increasingly attacked civilians and triggered an international outcry when it kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in the remote Borno village of Chibok in April.

Sign up for breaking news alerts from NBC News

In-Depth

- Reuters