Aljazeera
May 30,2015
Attack in Maiduguri kills at least 18 hours after Boko Haram assault on outskirts of city leave at least 10 dead.
A suspected suicide bomber has blown himself up inside a mosque in Nigeria’s Maiduguri city killing at least 18 people, a hospital source said, after a night-time attack by Boko Haram fighters on the outskirts of the city.
The attacks on Saturday occurred a day after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who swore to crush the armed group and move the command centre for military operations away from the capital Abuja to Maiduguri.
“A male bomber suspected to be Boko Haram is said to have entered a mosque near the (Monday) Market to detonate,” a military source told the Reuters news agency
The hospital added that there were also more than 30 wounded.
Earlier, Boko Haram fighters killed at least 10 people as they tried to advance onto a town near Maiduguri.
Al Jazeera’s sources in the area reported the killings by the fighters who fired rocket-propelled grenades. Another 10 people were reportedly injured.
Hundreds of gunmen are reported to have advanced to Ajilari-Cross, just south of Maiduguri early on Saturday morning, but were repelled by the military.
Borno has borne the brunt of many of the recent attacks by the armed group. The violence has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.
Boko Haram is a radical armed group fighting against western influence. The name loosely translates as ‘western education is forbidden’. It was behind the kidnapping of more than 200 girls from their school in Chibok in April last year. Most of the girls are still missing.
President Buhari said on Friday, “We cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls”.
The suicide bombings and armed attacks by the group have killed more than 13,000 people and displaced an estimated 1.5 million since 2009.