Eight killed in attack on a bar in North-East Nigeria

Militant Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility Wednesday for an attack on a bar in Potiskum, in north-eastern Nigeria, which killed eight people.

Members of the sect stormed the bar and opened fire at around 9pm (2000 GMT) on Tuesday. Among the dead was a policemen, according to witness Dauda Waziri.

"As we were leaving, we saw three men dressed like (nomadic) Tuaregs approaching the bar. Shortly after, we heard gunshots and ran for our lives," Waziri told dpa.

The attack was in Yobe, one of the states in Nigeria's majority-Muslim north that President Goodluck Jonathan declared last week to be under a state of emergency.

Also on Tuesday, in the mostly-Christian south, at least five people died when a mosque and Islamic school were set alight in Benin city, according to Red Cross officials who spoke to the BBC.

Sectarian violence has forced thousands of people at either end of the country to flee their homes.