B/Haram launches fresh attack on Maiduguri

The dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram, at the weekend stepped up its attacks in the North eastern part of the country, in apparent defiance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration day move to reinforce security in Maiduguri and its environs through relocating the armed forces command and control centre to the city.

Another bomb went off in the Gamboru Market near the Nigeria Customs Service House in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital yesterday. One person was killed and three others injured,  residents, military and hospital sources revealed.

On Saturday morning, earlier assaults by the insurgents were repelled by the military even as they furiously attempted to invade the town. 16 persons were killed in that attack.

Later that afternoon, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque. At least 29 people were killed and 28 others injured in that incident.

The military source said the explosives in Sunday’s blast were concealed in a bag of charcoal inside the market, about 300 metres from the state customs office.

There was no immediate claim for the blast, which is typical for such attacks, but it bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram.

The capital of Borno State, home to about 2 million people, is the birthplace of the six-year Islamist insurgency waged by Boko Haram to carve out a state adhering to strict sharia law.

“I heard the sound of a bomb explosion inside Gamboru market as I approached the area to buy vegetables. An ambulance later brought out four people seriously injured,” Felicia Emmanuel, a resident, said.

In another attack, Boko Haram militants attacked two Yobe towns, Fika and Ngalda, on Saturday.

The Chairman of Fika Local Government Area of Yobe State, Alhaji Baba Abare, told journalists yesterday that the militants shot sporadically at the two towns to scare away people so as to have ample opportunity to loot.

He explained that the major targets of the militants were shops in which they looted several food items as well as beverages, saying, however, that no life was loss during the attack.

Fika is about 150 kilometres west of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, and shares boundary with Gombe State to the south.

A resident of the area, Ibrahim Mohammed, who spoke on the telephone, said the terrorists first launched an attack on Ngalda, which is the Yobe/Gombe border town.

He said they proceeded from Ngalda to Fika town, the headquarters of Fika Local Government Area of Yobe State.

Mohammed said during the assault on Fika, the terrorists burnt down the local government secretariat, the magistrate court and the Divisional Police station.

A policeman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the attackers invaded the two towns between 7.30 and 9am, looting several shops and cart away with several food items.

He added that the militants stormed the areas in two Toyota Hilux vans and took away several motorcycles, which they stole in the area.

The Yobe State Police Commissioner, Mr. Markus Danladi, declined to comment on the attack, saying the Military Joint Task Force was the only body that was authorised to speak on such matter.

Fika and Ngalda communities have suffered several cases of Boko Haram attacks since the commencement of the sect’s violence campaign as the communities also share boundaries with Gujba and Gulani LGAs, which under the captivity of the militant group for so long before it was liberated few months back by federal troops.

The group is showing a return to its guerrilla tactics since losing the territory it gained in 2014 after successful offensives by Chadian, Nigerien and Nigerian troops over the past few months.