The death toll from an attack in northeastern Nigeria that saw insurgents dressed as soldiers set up checkpoints and gun down travelers on a highway has risen to at least 142, an official said Sunday.

"We recovered 55 bodies on Wednesday and 87 on Thursday," Abdulaziz Kolomi, an official with the environmental protection agency in Borno state where the attack occurred, told Agence France Presse. The previous toll from the attack late Tuesday in the Benisheik area was 87.

Nigeria's military sent reinforcements Friday to the remote northeastern town of Benisheik after Boko Haram Islamists stormed the area, burnt dozens of homes and slaughtered at least 87 people.

The Islamist insurgents were heavily armed and came disguised in military uniforms during the attack late Tuesday, according to survivors and security sources.

Islamist insurgents have rampaged through a town in northeastern Nigeria with heavy weapons, setting public buildings on fire and killing 87 people, including a soldier and the wife of a senior policeman, authorities said Thursday.

The attack on Wednesday was the latest carnage to hit the region, which has seen an upsurge in violence in recent days linked to a military offensive as well as attacks by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

Suspected Islamist insurgents dressed in military uniforms set up checkpoints in an attack in Nigeria's northeast, killing an unclear number of people and burning dozens of buildings, residents and authorities said Wednesday.

The attack on Tuesday evening in the Benishiek community in Borno state saw suspected members of Islamist extremist group Boko Haram invade the area, attacking residents and motorists.

A Nigerian woman tearfully prayed and recited Koranic verses as she won a beauty pageant exclusively for Muslim women in the Indonesian capital Wednesday, a riposte to the Miss World contest that has sparked hardline anger.

The 20 finalists, who were all required to wear headscarves, put on a glittering show for the final of Muslimah World, strolling up and down a catwalk in elaborately embroidered dresses and stilettos.

A military strike on a Boko Haram camp in Nigeria's restive northeast last week left about 150 Islamists and 16 soldiers dead, the army said Wednesday, amid reports of dozens of troops killed.

The army's claim of a major offensive against the Islamist insurgents on September 12 came after local media reported that Boko Haram had ambushed a group of soldiers in the same area, killing 40 and leaving dozens of others missing.

Vigilantes in northeastern Nigeria captured 11 suspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram and handed them over to the army, a military commander said Sunday, adding that four of them have since died in custody.

The vigilantes left their base in Borno state to chase six suspects into the neighboring state of Adamawa on Saturday, Beyidi Martins, a top commander in the operation against Boko Haram in the area, told Agence France Presse.

Gunmen with explosives and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a police station in Nigeria's restive northeast, killing two officers and injuring another in an incident similar to previous raids by Islamist extremists, authorities said Thursday.

"The heavily armed gunmen headed to the police station and burnt it down using IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and RPGs before engaging our men in a shootout in which we lost two officers while a third sustained gunshot wounds," Adamawa state police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim told Agence France Presse.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday sacked nine ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle amid tensions within the ruling party as his rivals manoeuvre ahead of 2015 elections.

Those sacked included Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru, Education Minister Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai and Housing Minister Ama Pepple.

Nigeria's second-highest ranking Anglican archbishop was kidnapped at the weekend outside the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, a police spokeswoman said on Monday.

"Archbishop Ignatius Kattey was kidnapped along with his wife around Eleme (outside Port Harcourt) at about 10:45 pm (2145 GMT) on Friday," spokeswoman Angela Agabe told Agence France Presse.