The ruling All Progressives Congress party is posting billboards in Nigeria, trumpeting its effort to defeat the Boko Haram Islamists.
The ruling All Progressives Congress party is posting billboards in Nigeria, trumpeting its effort to defeat the Boko Haram Islamists.
PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images

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A fierce battle with Nigerian troops is underway

Residents are reportedly helping the military in the fighting

CNN  — 

Boko Haram gunmen have been locked in a fierce battle with Nigerian troops in the country’s northeast, local residents said Friday.

Soldiers fought to push back Boko Haram extremists attempting to enter Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, residents said. They heard huge explosions coming from the fighting.

The mood in Maiduguri is tense, as civilians assist the military, according to residents.

Boko Haram militants this week killed at least 145 people in raids on three villages in Borno, witnesses said.

The Islamist group pledged allegiance to ISIS earlier this year and has been in a brutal campaign against civilians and authorities alike as it tries to impose its extreme version of Sharia law over an expansive territory. Borno is the state where the terror group abducted 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014.