Eight killed as bombers target northeast Nigeria

Two separate attacks in Nigeria believed to have been carried out by the elements of the Boko Haram terrorist group have killed a total of eight people in the northeast of the country.

Vigilante groups assisting Nigeria’s army in anti-militancy operations said Monday that four people, including three attackers, were killed in an attack that had occurred earlier in the morning in Mammanti village, 15 kilometers east of the city of Maiduguri.

Babakura Kolo, a vigilante, said they had intercepted three female attackers while they were “trying to sneak into the village around 5:00 am (0400 GMT), just as the morning prayers were about to start.”

He said two of the attackers managed to detonate their explosives while the third was shot dead by local militia. One vigilante fighter was also killed in the attack, Kolo said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the assault although Nigerian officials routinely blame Boko Haram for such attacks.

The second attack also hit Mainari village, located 10 kilometers west of Maiduguri, with local sources saying that four people had been killed in the raid.

A member of the civilian joint task force said, under condition of anonymity, that the vigilantes had gotten suspicious of the movement of a man that was approaching the village and had accosted him although he managed to blow up his explosives, which killed three and injured two.

Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno State, is the birthplace of Boko Haram, a Takfiri terrorist group which has pledged allegiance to the Daesh terror outfit operating mainly in the Middle East.

SS