Nigeria's army says calm has been restored at Maiduguri international airport in the north-eastern part of the country after soldiers fired into the air to protest against their deployment to fight Boko Haram militants.

A statement blamed "a few unscrupulous troops" for the Sunday evening incident.

Local media reported that the soldiers refused to board a plane that was to transfer them from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, to the town of Marte, close to the border with Niger.

A soldier quoted by news agency Reuters said that they had been told their deployment was for three years but this had been changed to four years.

Col Onyema Nwachukwu, the Deputy Director of Public Relations at the Theatre Command operation, called the incident "ugly" and "quite regrettable".

He said that the soldiers had been admonished:

Theatre Commander, Major General Abba Dikko has promptly taken charge of the situation after addressing and admonishing the troops."