Boko Haram Takfiri militants have torched homes in Nigeria's northeastern town of Baga, forcing residents to flee, witnesses say.

"They came into the town around 12:00 pm (1100 GMT) warning that anyone who wanted to leave should leave the town and soon after they began torching homes," AFP quoted resident Umar Kaka as saying on Sunday.

The fires forced large numbers of the residents to flee to the Borno state capital Maiduguri.

On Saturday, the militants told residents of the city, which is in control of Boko Haram, to leave before they set fire to their homes ahead of the arrival of Nigerian troops attempting to retake the city.

"Not all residents could leave because some are too sick or old to leave and we are afraid they were burnt in the homes," Kaka added.

"We learnt soldiers were coming. They advanced on Bama on two fronts and met some resistance at Boboshe and Yale but succeeded in crushing the Boko Haram gunmen," said Ibrahim Kyari, another Bama resident.

Bama has been in control of the militants since early September when it was seized along with several towns and villages in northeastern Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states on the border with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

The Boko Haram militants killed large number of the town’s population, forcing hundreds of residents to seek escape.

Over the past weeks, Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from Chad, Niger, and Cameroon have retaken most of the towns.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls parts of northeastern Nigeria.

It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its activities in 2009, which have left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced.

Boko Haram recently declared allegiance to the ISIL Takfiri group which is perpetrating heinous crimes against humanity in areas under its control in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.