For the first time in months, Boko Haram Islamic extremists launched a brutal attack on Northeast Nigeria’s Maiduguri.
With the use of rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers, Boko Haram claimed the lives of at least 50 people, with the death toll rising. Their offense was made up of multiple attacks at four southwestern entry points to the city. This attack was only the latest in several attempts to retake Maiduguri–the point of origin for the Boko Haram jihadist movement.
The area’s emergency agency reports that 30 were killed and over 90 were wounded in overnight blasts and another 20 were killed in a Mosque bombing caused by two female suicide bombers. “We are under siege,” civil servant Yunusa Abdullahi said. “We don’t know how many of these bombs or these female suicide bombers were sneaked into Maiduguri last night.”
The attack is said to be a challenge to President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration that Boko Harak, was “technically” defeated, only able to execute suicide bombings on soft targets. PR Nigeria, the agency releasing government news, reports that Nigerian troops “intercepted and destroyed” 10 suicide bombers and repelled attackers. “The troops laid ambush on the terrorists’ suspected routes…The suicide bombers were intercepted in three different locations approaching the city.”
With a population of 1 million, Maiduguri now hosts almost as many refugees driven from their homes as a result of this 6-year old uprising.
