With every attack by Islamist militants in northern Nigeria , Daniel Ayuba relives a nightmare . Two years ago , attackers planted a bomb near a car wash in Maiduguri . The explosion shattered his leg and left 80 % of his body covered in shrapnel . It also flattened cars and motorbikes , and left an entire neighborhood smoldering . `` I looked around me and there was fire burning , houses blown up and dead people , '' said Ayuba , the scars still visible on most of his body . `` I kept on crying , crying for someone to come help me , but no one would come . '' Ayuba is among a fast-growing list of Boko Haram victims . The Islamist militants have intensified their wave of terror targeting the north and beyond . And every attack gets more brazen . They swoop in on foot , motorcycles and car convoys . They hurl bombs and pull guns with lightening speed . In April the terrorist group attracted worldwide attention -- and condemnation -- when it abducted an estimated 276 girls in April from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria . Dozens escaped , but more than 200 are still missing . A few days earlier , the militants bombed a bus station , killing at least 71 people on the outskirts of the capital of Abuja . `` When I heard the news , I started crying , '' Ayuba said . `` I said to myself , 'What 's wrong with these people ? ' '' Father ambushed , killed . In his case , the car wash bombing was not his first brush with the militants . Years before that , members of the terror group ambushed his father , a police officer , and sprayed his car with bullets . `` When my father arrived ... they came out , one of them shot him '' in the head , he said . His father died . The lawless Borno state , whose capital is Maiduguri , is a major hot spot for the militants . So much so , it had banned motorbikes a few years ago to prevent drive-by attacks by Boko Haram . The group is known to use gunmen on motorbikes to kill . Ripple effects . For nearly a year , Borno , Yobe and Adamawa states have been under a state of emergency due to the relentless assaults . The Islamist militant group has bombed churches and mosques ; kidnapped women and children ; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders . Boko Haram -- whose name means `` Western education is sin '' in the local Hausa language -- says it wants to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law . Violence related to the group killed 1,500 in the first three months of this year alone . As the Nigerian military battles the brutal militants , it 's breaking the rules as well . Rights group accuse both sides of ruthlessness -- Boko Haram of indiscriminate attacks , and the military of extrajudicial killings . And as the militants step up their attacks , Ayuba is just glad to be alive . `` It was God that saved me . He kept me alive on purpose , and I ask God every day to relieve that purpose to me , '' he said . He walks away with a limp , his scars a symbol of an insurgency that will not be forgotten .
`` I looked around me and there was fire burning ... dead people , '' victim says . The man who died in the explosion is identified as a 23-year-old from the city of Izmir. The group is known to use gunmen on motorbikes to kill .