Nigeria violence: Islamist gunmen kill hundreds after opening fire in busy village market

Latest mass killings increase pressure on the government to find abducted schoolgirls

Hundreds of people were killed when Islamic militants opened fire in a busy market in north-east Nigeria, it has emerged, as violence in the region intensified.

As many as 300 people are thought to have been slaughtered in the remote town of Gamboru Ngala. Gunmen burnt homes and shops to the ground during the 12-hour raid on Monday night, a government minister said.

Residents who tried to flee the flames were gunned down or had their throats cut, according to federal senator Ahmed Zannah.

He said hundreds had been killed but that he was still waiting for more details from the military authorities.

Mr Zannah blamed Boko Haram – the group behind the kidnapping of 267 schoolgirls last month – for the attack.

The latest mass killings will increase pressure on Nigeria to deal with the Islamic insurrection in the north of the country. Boko Haram has killed thousands of Muslims and Christians in the past five years. This year alone, more than 1,500 people have died.

The group wants to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, despite half of its 170 million population being Christian.

The US, Britain and France condemned the abduction today and pledged to help search for the missing girls.

Britain is sending a small team of military and diplomatic experts to bolster the hunt. They will help co-ordinate the search and advise the authorities on how to tackle terrorist groups in northern Nigeria.

David Cameron pledged the support in a ten-minute phone call with President Goodluck Jonathan. The Britons – drawn from the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development – will join an American team.

They will fly to Nigeria as soon as possible, but the Prime Minister’s spokesman stressed: “It’s an extremely difficult, extremely challenging, situation in the north of the country.”

Barack Obama promised that the USA would do “everything we can” to help find the girls, adding that he hoped the kidnappings might prompt action against Boko Haram.

America is sending a team of military experts as well as hostage negotiators to support the search.

Obama told ABC the kidnappings “may be the event that helps to mobilise the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime”.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also offered to send security service agents to Nigeria. He said: “This morning [the president] asked us to contact the Nigerian president to tell him that a specialised unit with all the means we have in the region was at the disposal of Nigeria to help find and recover these girls.”

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau prompted international outcry after he threatened in a video to sell the captured girls “on the market”. The children were abducted on 14 April from a secondary school in the village of Chibok.

International pressure to find the students increased after it emerged on Tuesday that suspected Boko Haram gunmen had kidnapped another eight girls from a village near one of its strongholds in north-eastern Nigeria.

Nigerian police bowed to international pressure and offered a 50 million naira (£182,000) reward to anyone who could give information leading to the rescue of the girls.

The government’s perceived indifference after the kidnapping prompted an international outcry and protests in Nigeria.