Nigeria: Two bomb explosions kills nine 0

Two bomb explosions, blamed on the Boko Haram terrorist group, have killed at least nine people and injured 24 others in Nigeria’s northeastern restive province of Borno, officials say. The almost simultaneous blasts rocked the provincial capital, Maiduguri, at around 0600 GMT on Saturday, said military spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka in a statement released in the wake of the deadly incidents.

In the first attack, he added, a female bomber, detonated her explosive vest in front of the Bakasi camp, set up for internally displaced persons (IDP), on the outskirts of the city, killing five men and injuring 11 women. The second explosion, which claimed the lives of four people, occurred about one kilometer away from the first one, when a tricycle taxi was exploded outside a fuel depot of state oil firm NNPC, when the driver failed to enter the facility, Anka further said.

He added that the bomber was following a fuel tanker “with the sole aim of gaining entry to cause maximum damage and casualty.” The spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, Sani Datta, said nine bodies, including those of the bombers, were recovered from the blast sites. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, she added.   The Bakasi camp is home to some 16,000 refugees, who fled Boko Haram’s reign of terror.

Boko Haram started its campaign in 2009 with the aim of toppling the Nigerian government. The terror group later expanded its activities to the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. These countries have, in return, stepped up counter-offensives in the form of unilateral operations or contributing to a multinational force against the militant group.

The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and Syria. Many blame corrupt officials in the Nigerian government and army for the continued militancy, as recent reports say Boko Haram is receiving some of its arms and ammunition from corrupt Nigerian officials. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes.

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