Nigeria Boko Haram attack
An armoured vehicle is seen parked at the entrance of the LEA primary school refugee centre, following a raid by gunmen who killed over 100 people at Angwan Gata, Kaduna State Reuters

More than thirty suspected insurgents have been killed in an early morning raid by the Nigerian military in the northern state of Nasarawa.

"It is a military operation and they are in a better position to issue any statement. On our part, we are trying to see how the situation can be brought under control," state police spokesperson Umar Ismaila said.

More than twenty bodies were taken to the local state-run hospital in Lafia, the state capital.

Local resident, Audu Abubakar, told Chinese news agency Xinhua: "Many other bodies are yet to be recovered from bushes in our area."

It is not known if the militants were linked to Islamist group Boko Haram, but the raid comes after an Amnesty International report revealed that the Nigerian Army killed 600 people after a Boko Haram attack on a military barracks in Maiduguri.

Northern Nigeria has been plagued by Islamic insurgency with more than 1,500 deaths in 2014 in clashes between security forces and militants.

Boko Haram insurgents want to convert Nigeria into a strict sharia state and their campaign of terror has been waged mainly in the northeast of Nigeria. Three hundred people were killed in February alone.

Yobe State has been placed under emergency rule along with two other predominantly Muslim northeastern states - Borno and Adamawa.

A military campaign to combat the militants has been unsuccessful so far.

Boko Haram, which means, "Western education is forbidden" is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and has targeted many schools in the past year.

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