Islamic extremist group Boko Haram is culpable of killing roughly 2,000 people in Nigeria, mainly in the town of Baga, which shares a border with Chad. According to The Guardian, insurgents seized a key military base on January 3 and attacked again on Wednesday, killing mainly the elderly, women, and children.

Amnesty Rights International said in a statement of the attack, "The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram's deadliest act." Indeed, the attack was brutal - militants arrived in town firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents.

The attacks started at dawn on January 3, and continued throughout last weekend. Overall, Baga and 16 neighboring villages were attacked. Afterwards, the area was set on fire.

According to CNN, Musa Bukar, the chairman of the local government where Baga is located, stated, "Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still not safe to go and pick them (up) for burial...  Some people who hid in their homes were burned alive."

Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians, stated, "The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous... No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now."

Furthermore, the attacks have displaced roughly 30,000 survivors.  About 20,000 of them are camped in Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state.

CNN reports that Boko Haram aims to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south. It has terrorized many areas of northern Nigeria since 2009, attacking schools, churches, and civilians, and kidnapping schoolgirls.

Amnesty International's Daniel Eyre stated, "This [recent attack] marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population."