Scores of people were killed by Boko Haram in two northern Nigerian villages, local newspaper Osun Defender reported on Sunday.
More than 20 gunmen dressed in army uniforms and carrying sophisticated, automatic weapons attacked the villages of Koronginim and Ntsiha in Borno State on Saturday.
At first, the locals did not flee because they believed the army had come to the village, a witness was quoted as saying.
The villages are located near the town of Chibok, from where the Islamist group abducted more than 200 school girls on April 14. The government has been unable to trace the girls.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful,” has killed more than 2,000 people in Nigeria’s north this year alone.
When it first launched attacks in 2009, the insurgents mainly targeted Christians, under the pretext of wanting to establish an Islamic state.
Since mid-2013, Boko Haram focused its attacks on government security agents as well as on civilians of both Christian and Muslim faith in their homes, markets, hospitals and schools.