At least 25 people were killed in suspected Boko Haram attacks during the past hours on three communities in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, military and police sources said.

Reports said fighters in pick-up trucks attacked the town of Dille and two smaller communities in the Askira/Uba area in Borno state about 250 km (160 miles) south of Maiduguri the capital of Borno state.

Boko Haram has been trying to carve out an Islamist state in the northeast of Nigeria for the last six years. It controlled large swathes of territory in three states last year before being pushed out of the major towns it controlled.