2,000 feared killed in deadliest attack

Boko Haram militants opened fire on northern Nigerian villages, leaving bodies scattered everywhere and as many as 2,000 people feared dead, officials said.

During the raid that started January 3, hundreds of gunmen seized the town of Baga and neighboring villages, as well as a multinational military base. Attacks started at dawn and continued throughout last weekend, according to residents.

"The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram's deadliest act," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Meanwhile, two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria yesterday, including one by a female suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old who blew herself up in a crowded market.

At least 19 people were killed at the Monday Market in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, at about 12:40 pm when it was packed with shoppers and traders.

Boko Haram were seen as behind the attack in Maiduguri as it has increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs in their deadly campaign for a hardline Islamic state.

Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the blast happened as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market.

"The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP.

Witness Abubakar Bakura said: "The blast split the suicide bomber into two and flung one part across the road. Among the dead are two vigilantes who were searching the girl. I am pretty sure the bomb was remotely controlled."

Hours later, a suspicious vehicle that had been stopped at a checkpoint outside the city of Potiskum, in neighbouring Yobe, exploded at a police station as its driver was being taken in for questioning.

A police officer accompanying the car and the driver were killed, an officer said. Potiskum has been a repeated target for militant violence.

Earlier, local authorities on Friday said Islamist militants sprayed bullets as they stormed in last weekend in trucks and armored vehicles.

When they arrived, they unloaded motorcycles and pursued residents who fled into the bush, firing indiscriminately, said Baba Abba Hassan, a local district head.

Local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people.

"Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still no‎t safe to go and pick them (up) for burial," said Musa Bukar, the chairman of the local government where Baga is located.

"Some people who hid in their homes were burned alive."

Though local officials gave conflicting death tolls, they agreed on the massive number of fatalities.

More than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, Bukar said. He could not explain how he arrived at that toll. But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

An offensive is underway to reclaim the areas from the militants, according to Mike Omeri, a government spokesman.

At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said. About 20,000 of the displaced camped in Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state.

Authorities are making arrangements to transport the 10,000 others from Monguno town, 60 kilometers from Baga. Some residents fled into neighboring Cameroon and Chad.

"If reports that the town was largely razed to the ground and that hundreds or even as many as 2,000 civilians were killed are true, this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population," Amnesty International's Daniel Eyre said.

Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing government buildings. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and remain missing.

The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria.