UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned a recent wave of deadly attacks carried out by Takfiri Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.

The UN chief’s office said in a statement on Sunday that Ban was appalled by recent reports suggesting that hundreds of civilians had been killed in attacks in Nigeria’s Borno State.

Ban also voiced concern over reports indicating that a 10-year-old girl had been used as a bomber in an attack that killed 19 people in Borno’s capital city of Maiduguri on January 10.

Reports say that hundreds of people have lost their lives in attacks in Borno State’s Baga town near the country’s border with Chad.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International (AI) said that as many as 2,000 people were killed in recent attacks in Borno.

On January 11, two powerful explosions targeted a crowded cell phone market in the town of Potiskum, killing four people.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting and bombing attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

According to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, the violence, which has forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes, killed over 10,000 people last year alone.