Upwards of 37 persons have been reported dead in Wednesday’s overnight onslaught on Madagali and Michika local government areas of Adamawa State by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists.

News Express had in its initial report yesterday evening indicated that the casualty rate was yet to be known. However, the BBC later quoted witnesses as putting the death toll at 37. It also quoted them as saying that banks, shops and houses were looted and burnt during the six-hour raid by the militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Six of the militants were killed in a counter-offensive, BBC quoted the army as saying.

The attacks took place in the town of Michika, which has a population of several hundred thousand, and the villages of Shuwa and Kirchinga.

Residents told the BBC the security forces fled their posts because they were in no position to confront the heavily armed militants, who travelled in a convoy of pick-up trucks.

“Everyone has left the village. We’ve all run away into the bush,” a resident of Shuwa told the BBC.

The attack came just as Nigerians were still reeling from the shock of the killing about 60 people in a Boko Haram attack on Monday night on a rural boarding school in Yobe State.

President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the north-eastern Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states last year but that has failed to curb the insurgency.

•Photo shows Boko Haram warriors.