British Cabinet Minister Mark Simmonds on Tuesday condemned as “contemptible and cowardly” an attack on a mosque in northeastern Nigeria in which suspected extremists killed at least 44 worshippers and wounded another 26.

Attackers wearing Nigerian army camouflage fatigues struck under cover of darkness as residents were saying their dawn prayers at around 5:30 a.m. (GMT) Sunday at Konduga town, 35 km from Maiduguri, said security agents who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

“Attacking innocent people in a place of worship is a contemptible and cowardly act,” the Foreign Office Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds said in a statement Tuesday. He said Britain “stands with the government and people of Nigeria as they seek to reduce violence in the north east of the country.”

The government imposed a state of emergency in three northeastern states and deployed thousands more troops to try to put down the uprising that poses the greatest threat in years to security and unity in Africa’s largest oil producer.

Nigeria’s war is not Muslims against Christian. The Boko Haram terrorist network has killed more Muslims than Christians, according to officials, attacking mosques and clerics that have spoken out against extremism.

Boko Haram also has attacked Christians outside churches and teachers and schoolchildren.