Boko Haram claims responsibility for massacre: We killed the residents of Baga!

The leader of the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, today claimed responsibility for the mass attack on the town of Baga in northeastern Nigeria and threatened attacks on Niger, Chad and Cameroon, in a video posted on the internet, reports the Patria news agency. 

-We killed the residents of Baga. We truly killed them, as our Lord commanded us in his book, said Shekau in a 35-minute video posted on YouTube. .

In a direct message to Nigeria's neighbours, Shekau added:

-Kings of Africa, you are late. I challenge you to attack me, even now. I am ready, reports AFP.

Boko Haram extremists seized a military base in Baga on January 3 and, according to witness statements, killed numerous civilians in the following days.

The Nigerian army said 150 people were killed, including extremists.

The international human rights organisation Amnesty International, however, says that conversations with witnesses indicate that hundreds of civilians were killed last week.

Amnesty earlier said it had reports that as many as 2,000 people were killed and then described it as the "deadliest massacre" in the history of Boko Haram extremists.