MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, March 17 (Reuters) – At least 23 people were killed and 108 injured on Monday night in suspected multiple suicide bomb attacks in Maiduguri city, the capital of Nigeria’s insurgency-hit northeastern state of Borno, police and the military said.
The attack in the heart of Maiduguri – the most fortified city in Borno, the seat of the state government, and the headquarters of Nigeria’s military counter-insurgency operations – shows the extent of the threat that Islamist militants continue to pose in the region.
Borno, which is roughly the same size as Ireland, has endured an Islamist insurgency for 17 years that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced 2 million people.
The first blast on Monday went off at a post office in the city centre and was immediately followed by another at the popular Monday market nearby, two security sources and three Maiduguri residents told Reuters on Monday.
One blast rocked the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and another struck the eastern neighbourhood of Kaleri, also on Monday evening.
BLOOD STAINS, SCATTERED FRUIT
At the Monday market Reuters reporters saw a large hole in the ground created by the blast, with blood stains on the road and fruit and other debris strewn around. Few people were out in the city in the aftermath of the blast, with the army and police carrying out increased patrols.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that the incidents were carried out by suspected suicide bombers,” the state police said in the statement, without saying who was responsible.
Police said the situation was back to normal and security forces had tightened patrols across the city to prevent any further attacks, adding that an investigation into the circumstances of the attack was underway.
HALLMARKS OF BOKO HARAM
Security analysts said the attacks had the hallmarks of insurgent group Boko Haram, which together with Islamic State West Africa Province, has been escalating attacks against the Nigerian military in Borno.
President Bola Tinubu described Monday’s attack as an act of terror and directed security chiefs to move to Maiduguri to take charge of the situation.
The Nigerian military said there was an increased threat of suicide bomb attacks by Boko Haram and ISWAP during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week.
Besides the insurgency in the northeast, jihadists have also been expanding in the northwest of the country, where bandit gangs have caused havoc through kidnappings and attacks on communities and schools.
The United States carried out air strikes in Nigeria’s northwest in December and has begun deploying a small number of troops to train Nigerian forces confronting militants.
(Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi, additional reporting by Adewale Kolawole and Tife Owolabi; Writing by Bate Felix and MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Tom Hogue, Lincoln Feast and Hugh Lawson)
