Boko Haram fighters have gunned down at least 80 Muslims praying in mosques in a northeastern Nigerian town during the holy month of Ramadan, a member of a local vigilante group said.

Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja on Thursday, said the victims, mostly men, were killed in the remote town of Kukawa, and that the death toll was expected to rise.

“We are being told that Boko Haram fighters arrived in seven cars and on nine motorcycles in the town before embarking on their attack, and that over 1,000 Nigerian soldiers were in Kanwa, about 11km away but didn’t come to the rescue,” our correspondent said.

The attack took place on Wednesday night but news of the gruesome incident only came to light on Thursday, our correspondent said.

The attack on Kukawa came a day after the group attacked a village 35km away and killed another 48 men and boys.

The people of Kukawa were in several mosques, praying ahead of breaking their daylong fast, when the fighters attacked, the official said on Thursday.

Officials in Kukawa said some fighters also broke into people’s homes, killing women and children as they prepared the evening meal.

Kukawa is 180km northeast of Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria and the birthplace of Boko Haram.

The Nigerian group often defiles mosques where it believes imams espouse too moderate a form of Islam.

Wednesday’s attack follows a directive from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group for fighters to increase attacks during Ramadan.

Boko Haram this year became ISIL’s West African franchise.

On Tuesday night, Boko Haram invaded the village of Mussaram, ordered men and women to separate and then opened fire on the men and boys, witnesses said.

“A total of 48 males died on the spot while 17 others escaped with serious injuries,” said Maidugu Bida, a local vigilante group commander, based in nearby Monguno. Al Jazeera