MAIDUGURI: Suspected members of Boko Haram killed "dozens" of people late on Wednesday in a town in the northeast Nigerian state of Borno, not far from Lake Chad, a military source said on Thursday.

A former local official in the town of Kuawa said many had been killed after the suspected Islamist militants attacked in the early evening. A member of a local defence group said the death toll could be as high as 97.