Last week, local officials claimed that Islamist group Boko Haram had killed nearly 2,000 people in Nigeria's Borno state. Now Nigeria's federal government is claiming that at most 150 people died during the days-long assault on 16 villages.
The siege was large-scale enough that local leaders were left unsure how many had been killed. One district head told the Associated Press that "most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents."
According to the BBC, Nigeria "dismissed higher estimates for deaths at Baga, in north-east Nigeria, as 'speculation and conjecture' and exaggerated,'" adding that the army was "taking 'necessary actions' to restore law and order there, but gave few details about the operation to recapture the town from the Islamist insurgents."