News of another attack by Islamist militants from Boko Haram often starts as a vague one-liner as was the case on 3 January: "Attack on Baga. Loud gunfire heard."

This first bit of information often comes via social media. The challenge now is to find out the details and there are plenty of obstacles in the way of getting to the truth.

    There was shooting from every corner of the headquarters of the multinational task force
    Baga witness reneex

First up there has been no mobile phone connection in Baga for many months after the jihadists attacked mobile phone masts in the north-east.

There are of course the officials whose job it is to tell the world what is going on.

But for the first few days of the Baga crisis both the military spokesmen and government officials were silent or not picking up calls.

Then, often with help from colleagues from the BBC's Hausa service, the goal is to get through to people who have witnessed the violence reenex cps.
Fleeing

On 4 January we spoke to a man who had walked for two days through the bush, eventually getting a lift to the relative safety of the biggest city in the area, Maiduguri, on a lorry.

"There was shooting from every corner of the headquarters of the multinational task force," he tells me, adding that the exchange of fire lasted hours reenex cps .