A video
of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian
Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown on September 25, 2013.
Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law
to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government.
Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation:
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Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Lawmaker and residents say scores are dead, hundreds of homes destroyed
- They say Boko Haram conducted the raids in northeastern state of Borno
- One villager believes the attacks were reprisals for losses in previous raids
Editor's note: CNN is withholding the names of witnesses who spoke to the network about the attacks in northeastern Nigeria for their safety.
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Scores of residents in four
villages in the northeastern Borno state of Nigeria, near the border
with Cameroon, were killed Tuesday in Boko Haram raids, a lawmaker and residents said.
They said hundreds of homes were destroyed.
Heavily armed gunmen dressed as soldiers in all-terrain
vehicles and on motorcycles attacked Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and
Aganjara villages in Gwoza district, shooting residents and burning
homes.
Villagers fled into
neighboring Cameroon to escape the onslaughts, said a lawmaker from the
area who serves in the Nigerian lower parliament.
Her family was killed in front of her
Photos: Nigerians protest over kidnapped girls
No sign of Nigerian violence slowing
"We are still trying to
compile a toll of the dead as people on the ground are still counting
the number of casualties," said the lawmaker.
Residents of these
villages fled their homes while soldiers have deployed in the area to
fight the Islamists who have taken control of at least seven villages,
the lawmaker said.
On Wednesday, military
jets carried out aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions in the
affected area to dislodge the insurgents, he said.
A resident of Goshe said at least 100 people were killed in the village, but there is no independent confirmation.
"They laid siege on the village and opened fire
with Kalashnikovs and fired RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), burning
the entire village with its 300 homes and a few mosques," said a Goshe
resident who fled to Gamboru Ngala town.
"We lost many people including vigilantes who tried to fight off the Boko Haram attackers."
At the predominately
Christian village of Attagara, the insurgents set fire to homes and a
church and killed dozens of residents, according to a resident who fled
to Gamboru Ngala.
"It was a reprisal attack over the casualties Boko Haram suffered in the village in two previous attacks," the Attagara villager said.
On Sunday, around a dozen motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on a church in the village killing nine worshippers.
However, residents mobilized and pursued the attackers, killing four and arresting four others, the villager said.
Villagers had repelled a May 25 attack on the village, killing seven Boko Haram gunmen, he said.
"We believed they came on a revenge mission," he said.
Boko Haram Islamists
have in recent times stepped up raids in northern Borno state near the
border with Cameroon, Chad and Niger, pillaging villages, looting food
stores and killing residents.
With no communication in
the region because of the destruction of mobile phone towers by the
insurgents, news of attacks is slow to emerge and verification of death
tolls difficult to obtain.
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