Abuja: The pattern is becoming all too familiar to residents of Nigeria’s embattled north-east: Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram descend on a village, burn houses, round up scores of young people, load them onto trucks and then drive away.

Four months after Boko Haram shocked the world by abducting nearly 300 girls from a rural school, fighters shouting “God is great” snatched dozens more young people from another village in recent days, according to officials, local journalists and Nigerian media.

This time, the target was boys and young men, who were waved into trucks at gunpoint, prompting fears that they would be hauled off and forced to fight for the militants in their war against the Nigerian state.

Senator Ahmad Zannah of Borno state, which has been battered by the Islamist insurgency for years, confirmed the latest abductions but said that Chadian soldiers had since freed the kidnap victims. The group had been taken to an island in Lake Chad, he said, where the soldiers rescued them. His account could not be independently verified.

The kidnapped schoolgirls, by contrast, seem no closer to being rescued, according to diplomats, advocates, and parents and relatives of the girls. The substantial international mobilisation on their behalf — including intelligence assistance from the US and others, aerial reconnaissance, a global campaign on social media, and a vigorous homegrown protest movement — has had little effect.

Far from boxing in Boko Haram and forcing it to release the girls, the Nigerian Army appears to still be battling for ground in the region where the girls were kidnapped, the country’s north-east.

Some parents and relatives say they have all but given up hope that the girls will be rescued. Diplomats in Nigeria’s capital are also pessimistic.

“I don’t think we are significantly closer to seeing them released,” said one Western diplomat.

“It’s not looking real good,” said a second Western diplomat.

Boko Haram continues to make gains, planting bombs in cities and taking over towns, largely unchecked by an army ravaged by what diplomats say are corruption and morale problems. The diplomats spoke anonymously because none were authorised by their governments to speak openly about the efforts to rescue the kidnap victims.

Though the army recently recaptured at least one town lost to the militants, the sect still operates across big stretches of the region. It was from Chibok, a village about 80 miles south of Maiduguri, the regional capital where the group came into being, that the girls were abducted on April 14. The latest attack was reported to take place well north of Maiduguri, in the fishing community of Doron Baga, one of the many villages and towns in the state to be troubled by militants in recent months.

Boko Haram “can do whatever they want,” the second diplomat here said.

The diplomats fear that Boko Haram is closing in on Maiduguri, a metropolis of more than 1 million people, pointing to recent incursions by the Islamists. In December, an air force base was attacked, and in March, the Islamists freed prisoners from a military barracks, leading to a deadly episode in which the Nigerian military killed hundreds of fighters and fleeing detainees.

“A lot of people are talking about the defence of Maiduguri; people are concerned: it gets attacked and it falls,” the second diplomat said. “I don’t know that they can pull it off,” the diplomat said of a possible defence of the city by Nigeria’s armed forces, adding that they “have done nothing.”

The first diplomat agreed: “The threat to Maiduguri is significant.”

There is deep scepticism among Western representatives here about the capabilities of the Nigerian military after years of kickbacks and wasteful spending. A $6 billion (Dh22 billion) defence budget has failed to produce a fighting force capable of containing the Islamists.

“The extent to which it has been hollowed out by corruption and is a total void is just stunning,” said a third Western diplomat here. “You would think they would be up in arms. But nobody seems to care.”

Senior Nigerian officials have said several times in recent months the government knows where the kidnapped girls are — in the more than 20,000-square-mile Sambisa Forest, divided into perhaps six groups — based on US aerial surveillance and reconnaissance efforts by the Nigerians themselves.

“I think they know where groups of the girls are,” the second diplomat said. “They have a geographic idea where they are.”

Yet knowing where they are, and extracting them from the clutches of Boko Haram, are two different things. Any military operation to rescue them, even a skilled one, would almost certainly result in deaths among the girls.

Still, negotiations for the release of imprisoned Boko Haram operatives — a steadfast goal of the group — carry risks as well. Nigeria has in its prisons some of the sect’s most hardened militants and it is not anxious to give them up. It has so far denied that talks have been taking place, or will. But some diplomats are convinced that negotiations are necessary.

With all the criticism, diplomats here concede that the Nigerian government has a difficult hand to play — one that would be challenging for any country. “They are in a very tough spot,” said the third diplomat. President Goodluck Jonathan “is in a jam on this, no doubt.”

Some parents and relatives have given up hope that the Chibok girls will be seen again.

“I am apprehensive about the whole issue; there is no hint about a rescue operation,” said Allen Manasseh, a Chibok native and cousin of several kidnap victims who has emerged as a spokesman for some of the parents. “As to how far they have gone to rescuing them, we have not seen any different movement by the military.”

“The fact is that the BH” — Boko Haram — “is still attacking villages daily,” Manasseh said. “They are still moving on the federal road, in broad daylight. They can go out without interference.”

The parents say the circumstances on the ground augur ill for a quick resolution.

“The government is not serious about the rescue,” said Samuel Yaga, whose daughter Sarah, 17, remains in captivity. “The time is too much,” he said, speaking at one of the daily rallies for the girls here — by now a sparsely attended affair in central Abuja.

“We expect the government to have done something,” said Ayuba Alamson, a cousin of some of the victims. “The effort is not sufficient,” he said. “I have lost confidence in the military. If they were doing anything, they would have curtailed these attacks.”