Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers killed nothing less than 16 people and injuring 13 others in Maiduguri turning the joyous Eid celebration in the city to sadness.
Borno police said a male suicide bomber killed a security guard after entering the University of Maiduguri, near the city center, on Sunday evening at 10:20 p.m. Four female suicide bombers killed eight people around an hour later on the outskirts of the city in Zannari community, in the Gwange district of Jere local government after detonating devices in residential buildings.
Two female suicide bombers were the only people to die in two blasts at the University of Maiduguri on Monday morning at around 4:20 a.m. “In all, 16 persons including the suicide bombers died in the multiple explosions while 13 persons were injured,” said the Borno Police commissioner, Damian Chukwu.
These attacks came few hour after the security operatives notified Nigerians that it had foiled planned attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist sect in four northern cities – Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto and Kaduna – during the Eid celebrations to mark the end of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.
The attacks in Maiduguri is yet to be claimed by any group but the use of suicide bombers – particularly female attackers – in the region is a hallmark of Boko Haram.
