Militants wearing army uniforms have killed 19 people at
checkpoints on a road in Nigeria's Borno state.
The armed men reportedly stopped motorists on the road
and ordered them out of their cars before shooting them or
hacking them to death.
Witnesses told the BBC the men were from Boko Haram,
though the Islamist militant group has not yet commented.
North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency as
Boko Haram attempts to create an Islamist state there.
The group targets both the military and civilians, including
in schools, and frequently clashes with the Nigerian armed
forces.
The latest attack happened early on Sunday morning near
the town of Logumani, not far from the Cameroon border.
'On the prowl'
Survivors said the gunmen were dressed as soldiers and
were riding motorcycles before they ambushed their
victims.
"We were asked to get out of our vehicles and lie face down
by nine men dressed as soldiers who blocked the road," one
man, who gave his name as Buba, told the AFP news
agency.
"They shot dead five people and went about slaughtering 14
others before someone called them on the phone that
soldiers were heading their way," he said.
He said the attackers then fled into the bush on their
motorcycles.
Another survivor, Adamu Mallam, said he had heard the man
next to him being killed with a knife.
Buba said he knew the attackers were from Boko Haram
because they had beards, which soldiers do not.
"Everyone in this area knows Boko Haram is on the prowl,
raiding villages and attacking vehicles. It has become a
common occurrence," he said.
The BBC's Nigeria correspondent, Tomi Oladipo, says the
army often sets up checkpoints on roads in the troubled
region to stop the militants, and it could be that the gunmen
copied the tactic to catch their victims unawares.
Boko Haram has waged a deadly insurgency since 2009 in
its bid to create an Islamic state in the mainly Muslim north
of religiously mixed Nigeria.
It has been blamed for many violent attacks which have
claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 people since 2011.
The group's name translates as "Western education is
forbidden", and it has carried out several attacks on
schools and colleges, seeing them as a symbol of Western
culture.
Last month, up to 50 students died when suspected Boko
Haram militants attacked an agricultural college in the
north-east.
The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed
the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a shoot-out.
However, a video released last week purportedly showed
him alive.
Other previous reports of his death later proved to be
unfounded.

source.:. m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24604586