Nigeria's top brass warned Wednesday against premature declarations on 200 girls rescued from Boko Haram after the army said they were not the same girls kidnapped by the militants in an especially notorious incident in Chibok.

The military announced on Tuesday evening that it had rescued 200 girls and 93 women from the Islamists militants' Sambisa Forest stronghold in the northeastern state of Borno.

The United States condemned Tuesday a brutal attack during which Boko Haram gunmen killed dozens of soldiers and massacred civilians on a Lake Chad island.

Washington regularly condemns Boko Haram offensives, has repeatedly warned it would increase its support to the Nigerian army and urges countries in the region to fight against the radical group.

Nigeria's military on Tuesday claimed the rescue of 200 girls and 93 women from a notorious Boko Haram stronghold, but said there was no confirmation the hostages were those kidnapped from Chibok a year ago.

"Troops have this afternoon captured and destroyed 3 camps of terrorists inside the Sambisa forest and rescued 200 girls and 93 women," defense spokesman Chris Olukolade said in a text message, referring to the area in northeast Borno state where the Islamist have bases.

Boko Haram still poses a threat to civilians, despite a military crackdown, officials and experts said on Tuesday, after hundreds of bodies were found in a liberated northeast Nigerian town.

The grim discovery in Damasak, near Lake Chad in the far north of Borno state, came as the local government looked at the feasibility of returning thousands of people who fled the violence.

Boko Haram gunmen killed dozens of soldiers and massacred civilians in a weekend attack on an island on Lake Chad, after 21 people were shot dead in northeastern Nigeria.

The region has been relentlessly targeted by Boko Haram throughout the jihadist group's six-year uprising, but there has been a lull in violence in recent weeks.

A total of 23 people have now died from ethanol poisoning blamed on locally brewed gin in southwest Nigeria, the local health commissioner said on Monday.

"The total number of deaths is 23," Ondo state health commissioner Dayo Adeyanju told Agence France Presse by telephone. Last Monday the death toll stood at 18.

Australia urged Indonesia Monday to ensure the trials of two men sentenced to death on drugs charges were corruption free before their executions go ahead, as family members readied to say their last goodbyes.

"Bali Nine" drug traffickers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan could face the firing squad within days, along with others from Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines and an Indonesian prisoner.

The South African government reacted angrily Sunday to Nigeria's decision to recall its ambassador from Pretoria over a wave of mob attacks on African migrants that killed at least seven people.

"We are not sure which actions or behavior of the South African Government the Nigerian Government is protesting," the South African foreign ministry said in a statement.

Boko Haram militants attacked troops from Niger on an island base in Lake Chad, the government said Saturday, in a raid believed to have taken a heavy toll on the army.

"At dawn on April 25, fighters from the terrorist group Boko Haram riding motorized canoes attacked the island of Karamga, a position northwest of of the town of Bosso held by our defense and security forces," the ministry of defense said.

Togo's presidential election on Saturday saw low turnout, likely boosting President Faure Gnassingbe chances of winning a third term and extending his family's grip on power into a second half-century.

The opposition's prospects of unseating the president were considered poor heading into the vote in the tiny west African nation.