At least 11 people were killed today when Boko Haram
gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a suburb of Maiduguri, the
Borno state capital, police said.
Fifteen people were injured in the attack at and Polo general area.
Witnesses said the attack occurred in the morning as residents were
responding to the postponement of today’s general election by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The lull in activities following the postponment of the polls limited
the spread of news of the attack, with many in Maiduguri only
getting to learn of the attack hours later, residents said
Witnesses said four Boko Haram fighters — three with suicide vests
on their bodies, and one armed with a rifle — invaded their
neighborhood and immediately began to shoot sporadically while
the suicide bombers blew themselves up.
In Gwozari, Muslims who went to pray in the morning had to cut
short their prayers after hearing the sound of gunfire. But as they
made their ways out of the mosque, the gunman shot at them killing
two and injuring many.
“One of the suicide bombers tried to enter a mosque where people
were observing their morning prayers but before he got closer, most
them had started fleeing. So, the gunman opened fire from a
distance and killed two people,” said an eyewitness named Habu
Aliyu.
The other assailant detonated his suicide vests at a different
locations called Kushari where he killed himself and a fleeing child,
he said.
The third suicide bomber wondered into Maiduguri neighborhood
called Polo where he detonated himself amidst fleeing people. Three
persons died in the explosion.
A resident of Polo, who identified himself as Gaji, said “one of the
civillian-JTF operàtives was able to shoot the gunman accompanying
the two suicide bombers in the leg before a soldier came to shoot the
injured gunman dead.”
The Borno state commissioner of police, Damian Chukwu, said the
injured were taken taken to the hospital and “clearance operation is
currently being carried out at the location by a joint team of
Explosive Ordnance Department, the Special Anti Robbery Squad
(SARS), the Police Mobile Force, the Civil Defence and the military.”
The attack occurred barely 24 hours after Ahmad Salkida, the
Nigerian journalist known for his professional access to Boko
Haram, tweeted that about 50 Boko Haram fighters were spotted
camping at somewhere behind Maiduguri, called Ajilari-Cross.
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