MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian officials are trying to reassure citizens panicked about a spreading Islamic insurgency in the northeast even as fleeing residents report the extremists are urging people to join their fight and take their children out of school.

The Nigerian Defense Ministry acknowledged “challenges in the counter-terrorism efforts” that has filled citizens and even foreign allies with apprehension, but it repeated promises that “everything will be done to … defeat the rampaging terrorists.”