Rare video filmed by Boko Haram shows an attack on a military barracks
The conflict between Nigeria's army and Islamist group Boko Haram has killed some 1,500 people so far this year, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Despite a state of emergency, attacks have intensified. The BBC's Will Ross speaks to a man who risked his life in a failed attempt to track down the militants.
"As soon as we began climbing the hills, the Boko Haram fighters started shooting down at us," says John as he describes the beginning of a military operation to flush the Islamist militants out of their hideouts on the slopes of the remote Mandara Mountains along the border with Cameroon.
Being from the area and knowing the terrain well, John told the BBC that last year he offered to guide the Nigerian military to the Boko Haram fighters.
But he said the whole operation ran into problems when the local civilian self-defence group, known as the civilian Joint Task Force, joined the soldiers.
These men are among 250,000 people to have fled their homes this year
Villages have been attacked across north-eastern Nigeria
Thousands of extra soldiers have been deployed but the attacks continueContinue reading the main story“
Start QuoteOf course they are after my life. Boko Haram said they would kill me wherever they find me”
JohnNigerian military volunteer "The soldiers all met in the village and then suddenly a civilian defence force came to join us. But I could see that there were more than 20 Boko Haram members amongst that group," he said, adding it would be futile to fight the Islamist militants when you have Boko Haram members amongst your own force.
I asked him what made him so certain that they were part of Boko Haram.
John's answer suggests the Islamist militants are extremely enmeshed in the community.
"We all lived in the same area. We reared cattle together. I know their faces. I grew up with them. Some of my cousins are members of Boko Haram - one of them is a commander who is younger than me - he's 33."
Some of the men he was looking at, he said, were the very people who had earlier attacked many homes in his village.
A soldier then asked him to point out the Boko Haram members amongst the civilian JTF but they suddenly started fleeing.
"Another soldier grabbed me round the neck and said the recruits had already sworn on the holy Koran that they they were not members of Boko Haram. He accused me of causing confusion."
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has vowed to carry out more attacks