Nigeria Boko Haram insurgency: 150 killed in terror group's raid on Damaturu City

Over 150 people were killed in a raid carried out by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria's northern city of Damaturu on Monday (1 December), according to officials.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told BBC at the time of the raid: "It's chaos all over the town. All I can hear is explosions and gunfire from my house.

"I couldn't go out for morning prayers because this started before dawn and I'm afraid to leave in case I get caught up in it."

The sound of blasts and heavy weapons was reported by locals in the Gujba Road area of Yobe's state capital in the early hours of Monday morning.

"We have left our homes. We are now in the bush. We don't know what's going to happen," local citizen Umar Sada said.

Following the attack, a 24-hour curfew was imposed on the city with Yobe State's governor saying that the measure would ensure that security forces could clear the city of attackers.

Last week, three bomb blasts struck a mosque in northern Nigeria's largest city, Kano, during Friday prayers.

The terror group have carried out a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in their quest to establish an Islamic caliphate in similar fashion to that of the Islamic State [IS] in Iraq and Syria.

According to Human Rights Watch, the militants have killed at least 2,053 people since the beginning of 2014, but researchers at the John Hopkins University School of International Studies estimate that 7,000 people have been killed in the 12 months between July 2013 and June this year.