Extremists setting homes ablaze return to northeast Nigerian village, 3 dead

YOLA, Nigeria – Survivors in a Nigerian village say three people have been killed when extremists returned and torched remaining homes after 106 others died there last week.

District head Bulama Agapu said he went back to Izghe to persuade some elderly people to leave when militants attacked Sunday.

He said they killed a man and two women, and used firebombs to raze thatched huts. Hundreds were destroyed in the Feb. 15 attack that killed 106.

Nigeria's military says the attackers are fleeing aerial bombardments on forest hideouts. Local officials say the soldiers are losing the war to halt an Islamic uprising in the northeast of Africa's biggest oil producer.

Tens of thousands have fled such attacks and the fallout from a military campaign since a state of emergency was imposed last May.