(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/75306000/jpg/_75306515_line976.jpg) Who are Boko Haram?
- 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) Residents said people in Michika were trapped between the bombs of the Nigerian air force and the militants who shoot anyone that dares move, at times slitting their throats.
One woman told the BBC many children were trapped in her house and had no idea where their parents were.
A man said seven people had died where he was sheltering and they could not be buried.
Michika has a population of about 700,000, and is the gateway to Adamawa's commercial hub, Mubi.
Boko Haram's five-year insurgency is seen as the biggest threat to Nigeria's territorial integrity since the 1967-70 civil war, analysts say.
The group has changed tactics in recent months, holding on to towns in the north-east, where most people are Muslims, rather than carrying out hit-and-run attacks.
Source: BBC