Four killed in northeast Nigeria suicide attacks
Four people were killed in suicide bomb attacks at a camp for those displaced by the Boko Haram conflict in northeast Nigeria, the emergency services said yesterday. Abdulkadir Ibrahim, from the National Emergency Management Agency, said the blasts happened at about 11:20 pm (2220 GMT) on Sunday, just outside the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.
“Two suicide bombers (a male and a female) detonated their improvised explosive devices at Dalori 1 IDP (internally displaced persons) camp, leading to the death of three IDPs, while 17 others were injured,” he said in a statement. “Another incident occurred at Dalori 2 IDP camp, where a suicide bomber was intercepted, leading to the death of the suicide bomber.”
Ahmed Sartori, the head of the Borno state emergency management agency, said the death toll had risen by late morning. “The death toll is now four, with the death of one more victim,” he told AFP, adding that another suicide bomber had died trying to get into the city’s university. “A suicide bomber exploded while he was trying to scale the barbed wire fence at the university,” he said. A trench is currently being dug around the campus, which lies on the edge of Maiduguri, to deter intruders after a spate of suicide bomb attacks on the premises.
Boko Haram blamed
The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide bombers in its eight-year insurgency that has left at least 20,000 dead and displaced more than 2.6 million others. Dalori, which is about 15 kilometers from Maiduguri, houses some 50,000 people in makeshift accommodation and has been targeted by bombers before.
On the evening of June 18, two women blew themselves up at Dalori 2, where 10,000 people are living, The attack injured several IDPs but killed only the bombers.