Over 100 killed in Islamist attack in Nigeria: Senator

KANO, Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram Islamists have killed more than 100 people in an attack on a village in Nigeria, a local senator said.

The attackers stormed the village in Nigeria's restive northeastern Borno state on Saturday, slaughtering scores of civilians and sending many others fleeing.

"A hundred and six people, including an old woman, have been killed by the attackers, suspected to be Boko Haram gunmen," senator Ali Ndume told AFP.

"Sixty of the dead have been buried while the rest are awaiting burial," he said, adding the attacks in the area were becoming "deadlier and more frequent by the day."

The raid took place on Saturday in the mostly Christian village of Izghe in Borno, which has been under emergency rule since May last year in a bid to stop an Islamist rebellion that has claimed thousands of lives since 2009.

A local farmer who escaped by scaling the fence of his house and crawling on his belly for 40 minutes said the attackers had gone door-to-door looking for those hiding in their houses.

"The attackers came around 9:30 PM (20.30 GMT) in six trucks and some motorcycles. They were dressed in military uniform," Barnabas Idi said.

"They asked men to assemble at a place, and began hacking and slaughtering them."

There were no security forces in the town at the time of the attack, he said.