KANO (AFP) – Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have killed 10 people in raids on five villages in Nigeria’s northeast Adamawa state, a local official said on Friday.

“We have confirmed that 10 people were killed in the attacks on the five villages by Boko Haram insurgents yesterday (Thursday). Many people sustained injuries while trying to escape,” said Maina Ularamu, Madagali local government council chairman.

Scores of gunmen dressed in military uniform stormed the villages of Imirsa, Shuwari, Yaza, Humabza and Anguwar Shuwa, burning homes and looting food supplies, he told AFP.

“The attackers invaded these villages and destroyed everything in them after carting away food stuffs belonging to the villagers,” Ularamu said.

About 15,000 people who fled their homes from the villages were now taking refuge in Gulak, the headquarters of the local government.

“We have a humanitarian situation beyond our capacity to shoulder because we can’t provide for this huge number of displaced people,” he said.

Boko Haram militants have intensified deadly raids on villages in the northeast in recent months, pillaging and burning homes and killing residents.

The Islamist group, which in April kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria triggering international condemnation, has been waging a brutal, five-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

The sect is suspected of carrying out a deadly bomb attack late Tuesday against football fans watching the World Cup in the northern Nigerian city of Damature, killing at least 21 people, in the latest violence targeting the game.