One of Africa's most senior church leaders has accused the West of ignoring the threat of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, days after the reported slaughter of up to 2,000 people by the group.

Ignatius Kaigama, the Catholic Archbishop of Jos and president of the Nigerian Bishops Conference, spoke as bodies lay strewn on the ground in Baga, in north-east Nigeria, after a surge by Boko Haram fighters who took over the border town earlier this month.

He highlighted the stark difference between the West's willingness to act when 17 people were killed by militants in France and the approach to the slaughter in Africa.

Estimates of the death toll in Baga and surrounding villages, which were razed by fire, have been put at up to 2,000. Most of the dead were women, children and the elderly who could not flee in time, said Amnesty International, which labelled it the group's deadliest massacre yet.

A further 30,000 people are thought to have fled their homes, 7,500 seeking sanctuary in Chad and the rest adding to Nigeria's tens of thousands of displaced people.

Archbishop Kaigama told The Independent on Sunday that while the Nigerian government was "dilly dallying" and needed to improve its effectiveness against Boko Haram, the West must also act before the militants' power grew to stretch far beyond Nigeria's borders.

The government's military response to Boko Haram's advance in the north has been described as chaotic and ineffective. Soldiers often claim their allowances aren't paid and there are repeated reports of desertion and mutiny, weakening the army's ability to take on a well-organised and determined foe.

President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to re-equip the army to improve its effectiveness and there are hopes that after the election in February there will be the political will necessary to support the military against the Islamist fighters. However, Boko Haram, which regards democracy as blasphemous, is expected to do all it can to disrupt the elections.

But Archbishop Kaigama said the West should recognise that the problem is not simply a Nigerian one.

"I can smell a lot more trouble. It's not going to be confined to this region. It's going to expand. It will get to Europe and elsewhere," he warned.

"When it comes to the international community, they express their solidarity but it isn't really concrete help. We have always said that there should be concern expressed more concretely by the West beyond just expressing their solidarity. They should do more than that," he said.

"We believe there is a lot we can share in terms of security information. I would have thought by now they would be able to help Nigeria. There has to be a concrete collaboration between Europe and America to bring this to an end."

He added: "Compare what has happened in Paris and what is happening here. There is a great difference.

The British Government has in recent months announced a new package of help for Nigeria, including intelligence and training advice, to fight the militants. A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "Boko Haram deliberately targets the weak and vulnerable, causing suffering in communities of different faiths and ethnicities. They must be stopped. The UK – with France and the US – has taken an active role in supporting Nigeria to tackle Boko Haram."

For the Archbishop, this hasn't been enough.

"We were hoping by now that we would be talking about successes in confronting this militant Islamic group but they are causing more destruction and capturing more villages and killing innocent people. It's quite disturbing.

"I believe that Boko Haram and their allies want to cause more harm, more destruction. We are just hoping a remedy can be found and this terrible situation be brought to an end," he said.

The gulf in the attention between the murders in France and the Nigerian massacre was highlighted Twitter messages yesterday.

Imad Mesdoua, a political analyst at consultants Africa Matters, tweeted: "No breaking news cycle, no live reports, no international outrage, no hashtags." The actress Mia Farrow and Stephanie Hancock, of Human Rights Watch, were among those to observe that there had been "no outrage or headlines" about the Nigerian slaughter.

Harry Leslie Smith, the 91-year-old who electrified the Labour Party conference last year with a speech on the NHS, said on Twitter: "Note to the media and Western politicians that Paris isn't burning but Nigeria is."

Nigeria wasn't the only tragedy that fell by the wayside in last week's news cycle. On the same day that 12 people were killed in the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, at least 37 died and 66 were injured in an al-Qaeda bomb blast in Yemen that went virtually unnoticed by the international community.

In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Show all 35 1 /35 In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria A total of 276 girls were abducted from the northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, which has a sizeable Christian community. Some 223 are still missing In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria One of the kidnapped girls looks into a camera In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria One of the missing girls talking to the camera In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria The missing Nigerian schoolgirls, wearing the full-length hijab and praying in an undisclosed rural location. Boko Haram alleging they had converted them to Islam In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Girls wearing the full-length hijab holding a flag reading "There is no god, but Allah" and "Mohammed is Allah's prophet" In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria A man claiming to be the leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Abubakar Shekau speaks on the video In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Girls, wearing the full-length hijab and praying are filmed by an unidentified man (R) in an undisclosed rural location In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Soldiers lead the way as Chibok residents carry placards to protest the abduction of the missing schoolgirls in Maiduguri In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria People carry signs as they attend a protest demanding the release of abducted secondary school girls in the remote village of Chibok in Lagos In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls UK Demonstrators hold banners as they protest about the kidnapping of girls in Nigeria, near the Nigerian High Commission in London In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls UK A protester demonstrates against the kidnapping of school girls in Nigeria, outside the Nigerian Embassy in London In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls UK Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and Prime Minister David Cameron appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls USA People participate in a "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign demonstration and candlelight vigil in Los Angeles In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls USA Girls holding heart shaped banners in a "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign demonstration and candlelight vigil in Los Angeles In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls South Africa South Africans protest in solidarity against the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram and what protesters said was the failure of the Nigerian government and international community to rescue them, during a march to the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls South Africa The kidnapping has ignited a viral social media campaign that has brought renewed attention to Boko Haram's campaign of violence, and protests around the world In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls South Africa Some of the hundreds of protests demonstrate outside the Nigeria Consulate to bring attention to the girls abducted in Nigeria, Johannesburg In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls South Africa South Africans from various civil society organisations protest in support of the Nigerian abducted Chibok school girls outside the South African parliament in Cape Town In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Sri Lanka Participants chant slogans and hold placards during a protest to demand the return of hundreds of school girls abducted by the Boko Haram separatist group at the World Conference on Youth 2014, hosted by Sri Lanka in Colombo In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls USA Karilyn Coates (10) joins others in a candlelight vigil for the more than 300 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Colorado Springs In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls USA Mia Kuumba, of the District of Columbia, brandishes a wooden stick during a rally in front of the Nigerian embassy in northwest Washington In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Mothers of the missing Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram Islamists gather to receive informations from officials. Nigeria's president said that Boko Haram's mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls would mark a turning point in the battle against the Islamists, as world powers joined the search to rescue the hostages In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Nana Shettima, the wife of Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima (C) weeps as she speaks with school girls from the government secondary school Chibok that were kidnapped by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, and later escaped in Chibok In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Leader of Chibok community in Abuja Hosea Sambido (R) raises a newspaper reporting the death of two of the abducted Chibok school girls during a rally pressing for the girls' release in Abuja, ahead of World Economic Forum In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Femi Falana, a lawyer and human rights activist (C) leads a mass-demonstration calling on the government to increase efforts to rescue the hundreds of missing kidnapped school girls of a government secondary school Chibok in Lagos In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Members of Lagos based civil society groups shout slogans calling for the release of missing Chibok school girls at the state government house in Lagos In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria The Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for abducting over 200 girls from their school in Chibok, Borno state. Nigerian police offered a reward of 50 million naira (about 310,000 US dollar) to anyone providing a lead on the whereabouts of the more than 200 school girls abducted by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted an offer of help from the United States in tracking down and fighting the terrorists, US officials said In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Nigerians protest over the government's failure to rescue the abducted Chibok school girls in Port Harcourt In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Nigeria Former Nigerian Education Minister and Vice-President of the World Bank's Africa division (3rd L) Obiageli Ezekwesilieze speaks as she leads a march of Nigeria women and mothers of the kidnapped girls of Chibok, calling for their freedom in Abuja In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Bring Back Our Girls Michelle Obama tweeted a picture of her supporting the #BringBackOurGirls campaign Twitter In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Bring Back Our Girls Malala joined calls for the kidnapped girls to be found Twitter/Malala Fund In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Bring Back Our Girls Leona lewis supports #BringBackOurGirls campaign In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Bring Back Our Girls Kelly Hoppen tweeted: 'Please make sure you do this, we must stand together and not forget them' In pictures: Nigeria kidnapped schoolgirls Bring Back Our Girls E.L. 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The difference in reaction to Nigeria and other tragedies was, a spokeswoman for the Catholic aid organisation Cafod suggested, "about the value of a life – an African life versus a European life".

Concerns about the international response to Boko Haram, the group which infamously kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in a single raid last year, were raised as further details emerged about the massacre in and around Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad.

One of the survivors of the slaughter told of how he escaped to the city of Maiduguri, 100 miles away, after hiding for three days in a gap between two houses. Yanaye Grema was part of a group of locals who had banded together to try to defend their homes from the Boko Haram advance but were overwhelmed.

"People fled into the bush while some shut themselves indoors," he told AFP. "The gunmen pursued fleeing residents into the bush, shooting them dead.

"All I could hear were ceaseless gunshots, explosions, screams from people and chants of Allahu Akbar [God is greatest] from the Boko Haram gunmen. At night I could see lights from the power generator they ran. I could also hear their cheering and laughter.

"On Tuesday they began looting the market and every home in the town. They set fire to the market and began burning homes. I decided it was time I leave before they turned in my direction."

After emerging from his hiding place he decided to escape the area on foot, and witnessed the horrific extent of the bloodbath by victorious militants.

"For five kilometres, I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt," he said.

Muhammadu Buhari, the former military ruler of Nigeria and Mr Jonathan's challenger in next month's presidential election, said more soldiers need to be deployed against Boko Haram.

"I have made this comment before and the federal government refused to react to it," he said.

"The number of soldiers, policemen and officers of the State Security Services they deploy during elections, if they had deployed them to Borno and Yobe states to fight Boko Haram, by now, Boko Haram would have been history."

There was further carnage yesterday when a female suicide bomber, who according to one report was aged just 10, detonated explosives at a market in Maiduguri, a city of more than one million.