The U.N.'s human rights office on Tuesday condemned the killing of scores of villagers by suspected Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria, and urged the government to do more to protect civilians.

"We condemn in the strongest terms Sunday's attack by gunmen against eight villages in Adamawa and Borno States, which led to the death of more than 150 people," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

The governor of Nigeria's embattled Borno state warned President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday that the military is outgunned in its fight against Boko Haram and more troops are urgently needed.

Governor Kashim Shettima traveled to the capital Abuja for talks with Jonathan and Nigeria's security chiefs following the latest massacre in Borno of 106 people in the mostly Christian village of Izghe on Saturday.

Gunmen suspected of being Boko Haram Islamists have reportedly killed dozens of people, mostly Christians, in a village in northeast Nigeria, an official and local residents said Sunday.

"They killed many, many people in the attack late Saturday. From the latest information I have gathered, more than 60 people have been killed," the local government chairman, Maina Ularamu, told Agence France Presse.

Residents of a northeast Nigerian town said Saturday hundreds of them have fled their homes for fear of attacks by Boko Haram militants who killed 43 people this week in a nearby village.

About 400 men fled Bama on Friday to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, 35 kilometres (22 miles) away following warnings from residents of Gombale village, where Boko Haram Islamists gathered for a planned attack on Bama, Usman Adam, one of the fleeing residents said.

Boko Haram gunmen killed nine Nigerian soldiers after launching an ambush on a military convoy in the troubled northeast, a local official and a hospital source told Agence France Prese Thursday.

The troops were responding to a distress call late Wednesday in the Madagali area of Adamawa state when they were bombarded by Islamist rebels armed with anti-aircraft weapons mounted on the backs of 4X4 trucks, said Maina Ularamu, a local government official in the area.

Boko Haram gunmen killed 43 people and razed scores of homes when they stormed two villages in northeast Nigeria, firing indiscriminately on fleeing civilians, a state governor and witnesses said Wednesday.

Heavily armed Islamist extremists in 4X4 trucks attacked a mosque, markets and government buildings in a massive assault on Konduga village in the troubled state of Borno on Tuesday.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan sacked four cabinet ministers on Wednesday, including his controversial aviation minister, in a move seen as linked to his expected re-election bid next year.

Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is racked by in-fighting and has suffered a wave of defections to the main opposition group in recent months.

Nigeria on Wednesday said it would open a probe into claims of state-sponsored killings dating back to the era of military rule, raising hopes that perpetrators will finally be brought to book.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said a public inquiry would be held into complaints it had received "bordering on allegations of state-sponsored killings or assassinations".

Suspected Islamist gunmen raided two villages in Nigeria's restive northeast, torching homes and markets in attacks that killed at least four people and sent residents fleeing, witnesses and aid workers said Wednesday.

Both raids occurred late Tuesday in Borno state, a stronghold of the Boko Haram Islamist group that is waging a brutal extremist insurgency in the region.

It's been dubbed the "Venice of Africa" but comparisons between the sprawling Lagos community of Makoko and the historic Italian city begin and end at the water's edge.

Makoko's makeshift huts rise from the murky waters of the lagoon around Nigeria's biggest city, a far cry from the ornate bridges and buildings that mark out Venice's cultural and commercial past.