The militant group Boko Haram has seized a town and key multinational military base in north-eastern Nigeria, officials and eyewitnesses say.
A senator in Borno state said troops had abandoned the base in the town of Baga after it was attacked on Saturday.
Residents of Baga, who fled by boat to neighbouring Chad, said many people had been killed and the town set ablaze.
Baga, scene of a Nigerian army massacre in 2013, was the last town in the Borno North area under government control.
The British, in their wisdom, carved Nigeria into three vast regions: East (mostly Ibo);
West (mostly Yoruba); and
Northern (nearly half the territory geographically, mostly Hausa and Muslim).
A fourth Mid-West Region (tribally mixed) was formed in 1963.
This solution worked reasonably well until arguments began over the seemingly endless oil revenues from the coastal south-east. The four regions then became 12 states. After the disastrous Biafran war, which stopped an attempted Ibo secession, it was thought wise to re-partition the country again, and the 12 states now became 36 states. The idea was to try to get the states as tribally homogeneous as possible, a hopeless task, actually. Moreover the multiplication of governments has simply increased the opportunities for corruption and avoidance of responsibility. Increasingly it seems that the break-up of Nigeria into different nations may be imminent. Perhaps back to the original three regions? The problems would be once again the oil revenues, and the inability of the North to govern itself. However I ought to admit that I have not seen this possibility of splintering into separate nations punted anywhere among the chattering classes.