Footage of the victims released by the terror groups show a woman begging for her life.

The organization that goes by its French acronym ACF confirmed that a Nigerian staff member, two health workers and two drivers were abducted in  Damasak in Borno state near Nigeria’s border with Niger last week. One driver died in the attack.

ACF says the workers had devoted their lived to helping feed people in a country where more than half of the 200 000 population live below the poverty line.

Boko Haram and a splinter group Islamic State West African Province operate in Borno state with government forces unable to curb them.

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Government forces have recaptured the northeastern city of Bama from the insurgents.

Boko Haram took Bama six months ago – boosting their six-year-old insurgency to establish a medieval-style Islamic caliphate centred on Borno state.

In recent weeks they’ve moved across the border into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

But this has provoked counter-strikes from those countries.

Mercenaries deployed by the Nigerian authorities have also turned the tide of the conflict.

Nigerian forces’ morale has been boosted by the arrival of new equipment.

They’re fighting a terror group that grabbed territory the size of Belgium and repeatedly embarrassed President Goodluck Jonathan by showing he was powerless to stop them killing thousands and abducting 200 schoolgirls.

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He tells refugees he’s been assured by his security chiefs that all the areas under the control of Boko Haram will soon be recaptured.

On his first visit to the region since March 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan spent three hours on the ground in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

He met soldiers, wounded troops and visited a camp for thousands of displaced people whom he assured would soon be back in their homes

Some 5000 people from Baga in northern Borno, which was attacked on 3 January, are being helped in the a camp in Maiduguri, says medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

Boko Haram’s attack on Baga is feared to have killed hundreds, if not more, in an upsurge in violence likely aimed at further undermining the legitimacy of presidential elections next month.

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The Islamists raided Hong and Gombi, about 100  kms from the state capital, Yola.
Earlier in the week,  they were pushed out of the commercial hub of Mubi, which they’d held,for a fortnight.

Boko Haram’s taken   more than two dozen towns in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states in recent months, as part of its quest to establish a hardline caliphate in the region.

The invasion of Hong and Gombi saw them move closer to Yola.

Thousands of residents have been taking refuge in the city from the violence.

The jihadis  burned down the police station, the local government secretariat and the market after overpowering the police.

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The abduction follows Boko Haram’s seizure of more than 300 schoolgirls in April that raised an international outcry.

More than 60 women and girls have been abducted by Islamist militants from a cluster of villages in northern Nigeria.

The Boko Haram terrorists have also had also taken about 30 boys and young men. Four villagers who tried to escape were shot dead on the spot.

Nigerian defence officials in Borno state have not confirmed the abductions.

American drones, counter- terrorism experts and advanced surveillance technology from the US and the UK have been deployed in Nigeria following the kidnapping of the schoolgirls in Chibok. France, Israel and Turkey have also offered assistance.

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