(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75306000/jpg/_75306515_line976.jpg) Who are Boko Haram? (http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/74676000/jpg/_74676935_473262e0-06ce-48c3-8cac-f0fca8ce4bd7.jpg) The militants have caused widespread destruction through their bombing campaign
- Founded in 2002
- Initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
- Launched military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state
- Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - but also attacks on police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
- Some three million people affected
- Declared terrorist group by US in 2013
Who are Boko Haram? (http://www.theinfostride.com/news/world-africa-13809501)
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75306000/jpg/_75306515_line976.jpg) Mr Zanna said government forces had "gallantly" defended Bama, before it fell to Boko Haram.
Residents told BBC Hausa that Boko Haram returned to the town on Tuesday with reinforcements after being repelled by government forces the previous day.
On Wednesday, Borno state deputy governor Zannah Umar Mustapha denied the militants had taken over Bama, which had a population of about 270,000.
He told the BBC Hausa service that the army was still fighting them.
The government's National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said on Wednesday that 26,391 had been displaced by the fighting.
"The number is growing by the hour," its spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim told Reuters news agency.
Source: BBC