DHAKA: Suspected Boko Haram militants kidnapped at least 20 young women over the weekend in northeastern Nigeria, 8 kilometers from a town where more than 200 schoolgirls were taken nearly two months ago, local officials said.

The incident in the village of Garkin Fulani is the latest in a series of abductions for ransom in the area, according to an official with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, the umbrella union of all nomadic Fulani in the country.

The MACBAN official, who is in Garkin Fulani, put the number of women kidnapped at as many as 40.

The suspected militants came into the village in broad daylight on Saturday, heavily armed and wearing military uniforms.

"(They) took away 40 women, all of them young mothers," said the official, who asked not to be named for safety reasons.

A Borno state official confirmed the abduction but said only 20 women were abducted.

BDST: 1022 HRS, JUN 10, 2014