Attacks across Iraq killed 33 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

The shootings and bombings struck in Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more wounded, security and medical officials said.

Protesters campaigning in support of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants on Tuesday welcomed military claims that they had located the teenagers.

The comments by Chief of Defencse Staff Alex Badeh on Monday that they had located the girls was the talk of activists and pressure groups who gathered for their regular march in Abuja.

Cameroon on Tuesday began deploying large troop reinforcements to buttress its border with Nigeria against the threat posed by marauding Boko Haram militants, security officials said.

"The deployment has begun. Today, soldiers have started being sent to the border regions," a senior police official in the area told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the military and police in the northeast Nigerian town of Buni Yadi, where the group massacred scores of students earlier this year, witnesses said on Tuesday.

Multiple witnesses told Agence France Presse that the insurgents stormed the remote town at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Monday, firing first on soldiers manning a checkpoint and razing the local police station.

Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to Boko Haram in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, a source close to the talks told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Reports of the talks emerged as Boko Haram was blamed for fresh attacks targeting the security forces, public buildings and a school in its northeastern stronghold.

Nigeria's highest ranking military officer, Chief of Defense Staff Alex Badeh, on Monday said they had located more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants. 

"The good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you," Air Chief Marshal Badeh told reporters outside Defense Headquarters in the capital Abuja after speaking to protesters.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed a Christian village in northeastern Nigeria, killing 20 residents, a government spokesman said Monday.

The heavily armed gunmen stormed Waga village in Adamawa state on Sunday and opened fire, Ahmed Soji said.

At least 24 people were killed on Sunday when Boko Haram gunmen raided a village in northeast Nigeria, where the Islamists have stepped up deadly attacks on villages in recent months, residents told Agence France Presse.

Dozens of motorcycle-riding gunmen stormed Kamuya village in Borno state after sunrise as locals were heading to the weekly market, opening fire on residents.

Boko Haram is probably beyond the reach of global sanctions but attempts to curb the Nigerian Islamists' reign of terror is an indication of growing international commitment, analysts said.

The U.N. Security Council this week designated the extremist group as an Al-Qaida-linked organization, cementing long-held suspicions of its ties to militants in the global jihadi movement.

The Nigerian city of Maiduguri may be calmer than this time last year but locals in Boko Haram's spiritual home still feel under siege, afraid to venture beyond the city limits because of the high risk of attack.

Civilian vigilante groups chased the militants out last June after a wave of almost daily bombings, shootings and a scorched earth military response that saw civilians pay a heavy price.