Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed on Thursday that he is following up the case of the abducted Lebanese in Syria and in Nigeria, pointing out that he will cooperate with the President and the Premier in all matters.

“I discussed the matter of the abducted Lebanese in Nigeria with ambassador Amos Oluwole Idowu and General Security Chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim,” Bassil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Nigeria's Ambassador Amos Oluwole Idowu stressed on Wednesday that the his country is following up the case of the abducted two Lebanese nationals in the Nigerian town of Jama'are in Bauchi State.

“The case is linked to the security situation and is very delicate,” the ambassador told As Safir newspaper.

Nigeria on Tuesday issued an appeal to France and Abuja's Francophone neighbors, especially Cameroon, to help it in the battle against Islamists, two days before a planned visit from French President Francois Hollande.

On the day suspected Boko Haram Islamists slaughtered 43 students as they slept, Nigeria's information minister warned the attacks could harm French and other Western interests in West Africa if left unchecked.

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists killed 43 people on Tuesday when they attacked secondary school students as they slept in the latest school massacre to hit Nigeria's troubled northeast.

The raid at 2:00 am (0100 GMT) targeted the Federal Government College in the town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state and bore the hallmarks of a similar attack last September in which 40 died.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen on Sunday returned to a village in northeast Nigeria where 106 people were killed last week, torching homes, shooting and setting off explosives, a local official said.

The latest attack in Izghe, Borno state, happened at about 1:00 am (0000 GMT) and forced residents who had returned to the village after the February 15 deadly strike to flee again.

Nigeria has sealed a portion of its northeastern border with Cameroon to block the movement of insurgents and other criminal groups, the military said Sunday.

The closure has been imposed in Adamawa state, one of three states in the northeast placed under emergency rule in May following waves of attacks by Boko Haram Islamists.

Gunmen killed 13 people, including nine children, in a raid on a village in central Nigeria on Thursday, an official said, the latest violence to hit a region wracked by years of sectarian conflict.

"The attack took place around 1:00 am (0000 GMT) and 13 people were killed in their sleep" in Rapyem village, said Habila Dung, administrator of the Barkin Ladi local government area in Plateau state.

An attack by scores of Boko Haram Islamists in the northeast Nigeria town of Bama has killed 60 people and caused massive destruction to public buildings, police told AFP Thursday.

Residents said gunmen stormed the town at roughly 4:00 am (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, armed with heavy weapons and tossed explosives into various buildings, forcing residents to flee into the surrounding bush.

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has threatened attacks in Nigeria's oil region in a new video released on Wednesday.

"You will in coming days see your refinery bombed," Shekau warned in the 28-minute-long video obtained by Agence France Presse.

Suspected Boko Haram Islamists armed with explosives attacked a town in Nigeria's troubled northeast on Wednesday, sparking a battle with soldiers that killed a large number of insurgents, the military said.

Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade told Agence France Presse that the early morning attack in the town of Bama may have also included multiple suicide blasts.