KANO, NIGERIA ¨C Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram attacked the northeastern town of Baga for the second time in a week, leaving bodies littering the streets, an official said.
Unconfirmed estimates by victims¡¯ relatives put the death toll from violence in and around Baga on Thursday and on Jan. 3 as high as 2,000, Musa Bukar, chairman of local government for the Kukawa district, which includes Baga, said by phone.
The dead are ¡°littered on the streets and surrounding bushes,¡± said Bukar, speaking from a camp in the city of Maiduguri that is sheltering people who have fled the attacks.
On Jan. 3, Boko Haram captured the headquarters of a multinational military force in Baga set up to combat the insurgency. In October, Nigerian authorities said they had agreed to a cease-fire with the group, which has killed thousands in its attempts to impose Islamic law on the country. Since then, violence in the the north has continued unabated.
On Wednesday, a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, threatened Cameroon President Paul Biya in a video posted on YouTube.
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