Boko Haram gunmen killed many people in an attack in the restive northeast, throwing explosives into residential homes and shooting dead civilians who tried to surrender, an official and witnesses said Friday.

Residents in the town of Damboa said they were left completely defenseless after the security forces pulled out of the area following a militant attack two weeks ago. 

Gunmen riding on motorcycles kidnapped a German national on Wednesday in northeast Nigeria, police said, in the latest violence to hit the area which has come under repeated attacks from Boko Haram militants.

"Security agents are working assiduously to track down the kidnappers and free the hostage," Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar said of the early morning abduction in the town of Gombi, while confirming the victim's nationality.

Nigeria's leader Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday accused activists of playing politics, saying they cancelled a meeting between him and family members of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April.

Jonathan had been scheduled to meet some parents of the victims, as well as five girls who escaped captivity hours after the attack in the remote town of Chibok in the northeast.

Nigerian police on Tuesday said they had arrested a senior Boko Haram Islamist commander known as "Chief Butcher" during a raid on an insurgent camp in the restive northeast.

Mohammed Zakari, 30, was arrested on Saturday "following the massive onslaught by security forces on the activities of the insurgent group", at Balmo Forest in Bauchi state, a statement said.

Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai on Monday urged Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to meet with parents of the schoolgirls kidnapped three months ago by Boko Haram.

Malala, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 and has become a champion for access to schooling, was in Abuja on her 17th birthday to mark three months since Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, in the northeast.

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban, held meetings Sunday in the Nigerian capital Abuja with some parents of the over 200 girls abducted in northern Nigeria and leaders of a group campaigning for their release.

She is scheduled to meet President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday in the Nigeria capital, exactly three months after 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram Islamists from their school in Chibok, in northeast Borno state, a member of her entourage told Agence France Presse.

The head of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists has voiced support for the extremist Sunni Islamic State (IS) militants who have taken over large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, in a video obtained by Agence France Presse Sunday.

In the 16-minute video, given to AFP through similar channels as past messages, Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau also claims responsibility for a June 25 bombing in the capital Abuja and an attack hours later in Lagos which the authorities tried to cover up

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan praised compatriot Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel literature prize laureate who turns 80 on Sunday, for using his talents to promote good governance.

Jonathan applauded Soyinka's "life-long dedication and indefatigable commitment to using his acclaimed genius and talents, not only in the service of the arts, but also for the promotion of democracy, good governance and respect for human rights in Nigeria, Africa and beyond."

Nigerian police warned on Saturday of a new wave terrorist attacks on the capital Abuja, where more than 100 people have been killed in bombings since April.

Officers claimed they had "credible intelligence reports" of suicide attacks being planned on the city's transport system, with terrorists also plotting to detonate improvised explosive devices concealed in luggage, bags and cans.

Sani Mudi, a Muslim leader in Jos, perhaps Nigeria's most religiously segregated city, stares out the window of the dimly lit central mosque, waiting for young men to drift in.

Some come to worship, he said, but often visitors have a more mundane purpose: help in getting valid identification, proof of residence papers or any other services that should be provided by the Christian-controlled state government.