Boko Haram intensifies attacks: Will it soon occupy parts of Nigeria?

The villagers knew the men in fatigues were not regular soldiers when they quietly slipped into town Wednesday night. They were Boko Haram militants, but it was too late to run.

“They calmed us down that we should not worry because they were in our community to preach Islam to us and not to kill us,” said Abuwar Yale, a farmer from the village of Bargari in northeastern Nigeria.

The carnage that followed is one of several attacks this week that have left hundreds of civilians dead and entire villages under siege -- suggesting that the Boko Haram insurgency has the funding it needs and that its operations are intensifying, with parts of the diffuse group emerging from hideouts in the bush and forest and setting up in more structured living spaces.

The government continues to say that Boko Haram will “very soon” be “history.” But local officials say Boko Haram is gaining strength and appears to be fighting to occupy parts of the northeast region – despite the imposition of an emergency rule by the Goodluck Jonathan administration a year ago.

In Bargari village on Wednesday night, the militants ordered the villagers to gather by the mosque, and many in the small farming community complied. The fighters then opened fire, killing at least 45 people before setting the houses ablaze and stealing the livestock.

In other villages this week, militants remained in place after the slaughter and are believed to have hoisted flags, claiming some lands for their own, according Muhammed Ali Ndume, a Nigerian senator.

Mr. Ndume represents the local government in Gwoza region where six villages were attacked early this week, leaving at least 300 people dead.

“The insurgents had taken over these communities and sacked virtually everyone out of their homes,” said Ndume. “Many had ran into Cameroon. Many had been killed, their homes burnt down.”

His region, he added, is connected to the state capital, Maiduguri, by roads too dangerous for even the Army to travel. Two bridges have been bombed. The military, he said, appears to have neither enough equipment nor personnel to defeat the heavily armed militants.

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in the past five years, claiming it wants to install Islamic law in northern Nigeria, where its murderous actions now appear to have led some half-million people to flee their homes