Heavily armed gunmen raided four villages in northeast Nigeria leaving scores dead and sending survivors fleeing the attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
The gunmen dressed as soldiers arrived in all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles and attacked Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara in the Gwoza district of Borno state, late on Tuesday.
"There were deadly attacks on these villages by Boko Haram insurgents who killed a large number of people and destroyed homes," politician Peter Biye, who represents the area in Nigeria's lower chamber of parliament, told AFP on Wednesday.
"We are still trying to compile a toll of the dead as people on the ground are still counting the number of casualties."
Many residents fled across the border into neighbouring Cameroon, as soldiers were deployed to fight the Islamists, who took over at least seven villages, Biye added.
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Abba Goni, who lives in the mainly Muslim village of Goshe, said the gunmen were armed with Kalashnikov assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
The entire village of about 300 homes was razed with several mosques, he added.
"We lost many people, including (civilian) vigilantes who tried to fight off the Boko Haram attackers. At least 100 people were killed," said Goni, who fled to nearby Gamboru Ngala.
In the predominantly Christian village of Attagara, homes and a church were also set on fire while dozens of residents were killed, according to Bulus Yashi, who also escaped to Gamboru Ngala.
"It was a reprisal attack over the casualties Boko Haram suffered in the village in two previous attacks," he said.
The group, which wants to create a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria and has killed thousands since 2009, kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Borno on April 14.
