A video of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown in September 2013. Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation: 
Bodies lie in the streets in Maiduguri, Nigeria, after religious clashes on July 31, 2009. Boko Haram exploded onto the national scene in 2009 when 700 people were killed in widespread clashes across the north between the group and the Nigerian military. 
An official displays burned equipment inside a prison in Bauchi, Nigeria, on September 9, 2010, after the prison was attacked by suspected members of Boko Haram two days earlier. About 720 inmates escaped during the prison break, and police suspect the prison was attacked because it was holding 80 members of the sect. 
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, second from left, stands on the back of a vehicle after being sworn-in as President during a ceremony in the capital of Abuja on May 29, 2011. In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the country afflicted by violence from Boko Haram. 
Rescue workers help a wounded person from a U.N. building in Abuja, Nigeria, on August 26, 2011. The building was rocked by a bomb that killed at least 23 people, leaving others trapped and causing heavy damage. Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack in which a Honda packed with explosives rammed into the U.N. building, shattering windows and setting the place afire. 
A photo taken on November 6, 2011, shows state police headquarters burned by a series of attacks that targeted police stations, mosques and churches in Damaturu, Nigeria, on November 4, 2011. Attackers left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage, and 63 people died. 
Men look at the wreckage of a car after a bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church outside Abuja on December 25, 2011. A string of bombs struck churches in five Nigerian cities, leaving dozens dead and wounded on the Christmas holiday, authorities and witnesses said. Boko Haram's targets included police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence." 
A paramedic helps a young man as he leaves a hospital in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on January 21, 2012. A spate of bombings and shootings left more than 200 people dead in Nigeria's second-largest city. Three days later, a joint military task force in Nigeria arrested 158 suspected members of Boko Haram. 
A photo taken on June 18, 2012, shows a car vandalized after three church bombings and retaliatory attacks in northern Nigeria killed at least 50 people and injured more than 130 others, the Nigerian Red Cross Society said. 
A French family kidnapped February 19, 2013, in northern Cameroon is released after two months in captivity in Nigeria. The family of four children, their parents and an uncle were kidnapped in Waza National Park in northern Cameroon, situated near the border with Nigeria. One of the captive men read a statement demanding that Nigeria and Cameroon free jailed members of Boko Haram. 
A soldier stands in front of a damaged wall and the body of a prison officer killed during an attack on a prison in the northeastern Nigerian town of Bama on May 7, 2013. Two soldiers were killed during coordinated attacks on multiple targets. Nigeria's military said more than 100 Boko Haram militants carried out the attack. 
A deserted student hostel is shown on August 6, 2013, after gunmen stormed a school in Yobe state, killing 20 students and a teacher, state media reported. 
A photograph made available by the Nigerian army on August 13, 2013, shows improvised explosive devices, bomb-making materials and detonators seized from a Boko Haram hideout. Gunmen attacked a mosque in Nigeria with automatic weapons on August 11, 2013, killing at least 44 people. 
Nigerian students from Jos Polytechnic walk on campus in Jos, Nigeria, on September 30, 2013. Under the cover of darkness, gunmen approached a college dormitory in a rural Nigerian town and opened fire on students who were sleeping. At least 40 students died, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. 
Soldiers stand outside the 79 Composite Group Air Force base that was attacked earlier in Maiduguri on December 2. Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked an Air Force base and a military checkpoint, according to government officials. 
Catholic priest Georges Vandenbeusch speaks to reporters outside Paris after his release on January 1. Vandenbeusch was snatched from his parish church in Cameroon on November 13. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping the priest. 
A man receives treatment at Konduga specialist hospital after a gruesome attack on January 26. It was suspected that Boko Haram militants opened fire on a village market and torched homes in the village of Kawuri, killing at least 45 people. 
Police officers stand guard in front of the burned remains of homes and businesses in the village of Konduga on February 12. Suspected Boko Haram militants torched houses in the village, killing at least 23 people, according to the governor of Borno state on February 11. 
Yobe state Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam, left, looks at the bodies of students inside an ambulance outside a mosque in Damaturu. At least 29 students died in an attack on a federal college in Buni Yadi, near the capital of Yobe state, Nigeria's military said on February 26. Authorities suspect Boko Haram carried out the assault in which several buildings were also torched. 
Rescue workers try to put out a fire after a bomb exploded at the busiest roundabout near the crowded Monday Market in Maiduguri on July 1. 
Police in riot gear block a route in Abuja on October 14, during a demonstration calling on the Nigerian government to rescue schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. In April, more than 200 girls were abducted from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria, officials and witnesses said. 
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- NEW: Suicide bomber kills six people in Kano; Boko Haram suspected
- Chibok is among at least three towns seized by fighters
- Boko Haram fighters also overran two towns in Adamawa state, fleeing residents say
- The militant Islamists "are all over the town firing heavy guns," one resident says
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Boko Haram fighters late Thursday took over at least three towns in northeast Nigeria, including Chibok, the scene of the April kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the militant group, residents and a lawmaker said Friday.
"Boko Haram has taken over Chibok and we have all fled," said Enoch Mark, a Christian priest in the town whose daughter and niece are among the kidnapped girls. "They are now in control of the town, having overpowered the soldiers and the vigilantes."
The militant Islamist group also raided the towns of Hong and Gombi in Adamawa state, 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) from Yola, the state capital. Local hunters and vigilantes had pushed them out of Mubi, which lies near Nigeria's border with Cameroon and is the commercial hub of the state.
Boko Haram seized Mubi two weeks ago and renamed the town "Madinatul Islam" ("City of Islam" in Arabic). The militants began administering strict Sharia punishments, including public floggings and amputations.
With the invasion of the towns, the militants inched closer to Yola, where thousands of residents from areas seized by Boko Haram are taking refuge.
Fleeing Boko Haram 
Why didn't our girls come home? 
Boko Haram: Abducted girls married off "Boko Haram are all over the town firing heavy guns as they patrol the streets," said Gombi resident Dahiru Sahabi. "They have burned down the police station, the local government secretariat and the market after overpowering the police."
Residents moved indoors or fled into the bush to escape the insurgents, said resident Rabi Tanimu.
"We are all indoors and all we hear is sounds of heavy guns and explosives," she said.
In Chibok, the town's vigilantes, who help provide security, were quickly overwhelmed by the firepower of the militants. One resident described Chibok as "a ghost town" as most residents fled the violence.
The insurgents had earlier raided the town of Hong, where they burned down a police station and hoisted their black flag outside the home of a retired military general, said fleeing residents.
Before attacking Hong, the militants, riding in vans and on motorcycles, sacked a military checkpoint at nearby Marabar Pella village, where they converged after their ouster from Mubi and Maiha, said Hong resident Luka Buba.
Chibado Bobi, chief of staff in the Adamawa governor's office, confirmed that vigilantes and hunters had recaptured Mubi.
"The state government enlisted the help of the vigilantes and hunters to combat Boko Haram and it is paying off," Bobi said.
A resident of Mubi said Boko Haram militants fled the town in droves after the arrival of some 200 vigilantes and hunters, who were armed with homemade guns, spears, clubs, bows and arrows and machetes.
The resident, who asked not to be named for personal safety, said hunters captured the ousted occupiers' leader "outside the military barracks, which the militants (had) converted into their base."
Vigilantes reportedly reclaimed another town, Maiha, from Boko Haram on Wednesday after a fierce battle in which dozens of militants were killed.
The name "Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
The fate of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok remains unknown despite an announcement in October that Nigerian officials had reached a ceasefire deal with the group that included the girls' release.
But weeks later, the girls are still missing and the group's leader has denied ever making such a deal.
Also Friday, a suicide bomber killed six people, including three police officers, and injured five others when he blew up his car at a gas station in northern Nigeria's largest city of Kano, police said.
The bomber, who police suspected to be a Boko Haram terrorist, detonated the explosives concealed in his car as he lined up for fuel, Kano State Police Commissioner Adenrele Shinaba told reporters at the scene.
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