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Boko Haram Takes Northeastern Nigerian Towns


FILE - Women and children, who escaped attacks by Boko Haram militants, sit together at an internally displaced persons camp at Wurojuli, Gombe State, Sept. 2, 2014.
FILE - Women and children, who escaped attacks by Boko Haram militants, sit together at an internally displaced persons camp at Wurojuli, Gombe State, Sept. 2, 2014.

The Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has seized several more towns along the country's northeastern border with Cameroon.

In Adamawa state, witnesses say Boko Haram militants took over four towns including Michika, killing dozens of civilians and displacing many others.

In Borno state, suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the small town of Bui on Sunday, injuring three soldiers and setting fire to a primary school.

Further north, Nigerian army soldiers fought militants to recapture the city of Bama, blocking their advance to the Borno state capital, Maidaguri. Thousands of residents had fled the area in recent days.

Meanwhile, Cameroon's military says it killed more than a hundred suspected Boko Haram militants in the town of Gambourou, three kilometers from the Nigerian border. That attack, which took place Saturday and Sunday, came days after Boko Haram militants tried to seize the Cameroonian town of Fotocol.

Boko Haram has used Cameroonian territory for bases and training grounds.

The militant group has been seizing areas in northeastern Nigeria for what its leader, Abubakar Shekau, calls a caliphate, or an Islamic state.

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