Amnesty: Baga massacre deadliest in history of Boko Haram

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Fleeing residents say hundreds of bodies — too many to count — remain from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International is calling the deadliest massacre in the history of Boko Haram.

Residents say the victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents on Jan. 3 drove into Baga firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents and seizing a key military base on the border with Chad.

Amnesty International says Friday there are reports the town was razed to the ground and as many as 2,000 people killed, marking "a bloody and disturbing escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population."

The 5-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.