The Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram have ramp up attacks as the December 31 deadline to end the terrorist group atrocities draws near. The group has struck the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers, according to witnesses.
At least 15 people have been killed in the attack by the radical Islamic group on Sunday but the toll was feared many times higher, Associated Press reported.
Militants firing indiscriminately from the back of three trucks attacked the village of Dawari on the outskirts of Maiduguri, which is the birthplace of Boko Haram.
Soldiers engaged them, the reports said, and as people were fleeing a woman ran into a neighbouring area yelling “Boko Haram, Boko Haram”. When people gathered, she detonated herself, according to witness Bulama Isa.
A rocket-propelled grenade then exploded, setting alight grass-thatched huts, while a second woman blew herself up, according to Isa. A village chief, 10 of his children and others were killed in Dawari, according to residents Ahmed Bala and Umar Ibrahim.
The terrorist sect also at about 8 pm yesterday, through two of its suicide bombers, believed to be females, detonated explosives near FOMWAN school in Jiddari area of Maiduguri. The casualty figure from the explosions is yet to be ascertained.
In another related story, Nigerian troops “intercepted and destroyed” 10 suicide bombers, according to PR Nigeria. “The troops laid ambush on the terrorists’ suspected routes … The suicide bombers were intercepted in three different locations approaching the city,” PR Nigeria said, quoting the military.
The attack comes just days before President Muhammadu Buhari’s self-imposed deadline to stamp out the group expires on December 31, and in the same week that he said Nigeria has “technically” defeated the jihadists.
Nigerian troops have won back territory from Boko Haram, but two attacks launched by the militants within the space of three days have called into question Buhari’s claim.
