This is just as two suicide bombers, yesterday, blew themselves up at a village in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, at the time Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was visiting the city.
Sources said the terrorists, armed with AK-47 rifles were, fleeing from military bombardment by air force raid when they sneaked into the nearby villages, setting many residential buildings, mostly thatched houses, ablaze.
Last Tuesday, over 23 people including members of youths vigilante, were feared dead with scores injured when a bag filled with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) discovered by operatives of the youth vigilante (Civilian JTF) at a deserted camp of Boko Haram near Monguno village in Borno State had incidentally exploded.
Monguno is about 155km drive from Maiduguri, the state capital that was under Boko haram control before it was liberated by military early this year.
Residents and eye witnesses said: “The insurgents who were attempting to regroup around one of their destroyed camps were bombarded by a coordinated effort of the military and air force operatives, before some of them who escaped the onslaught stormed some of the nearby villages and killed 10 people with seven others seriously injured.”
A reliable source at the Accident and Emergency Unit of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) who is not authorized to talk to the press said seven people who sustained gunshot wounds in the Monguno village attacks were brought in and admitted at the UMTH yesterday evening.
“We received seven victims of Boko Haram attacks in Monguno village today (yesterday), I was at the hospital when the victims were brought in by some security operatives with few members of civilian JTF,” the source stated.
Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in Maiduguri
Meanwhile, two suicide bombers, yesterday, blew themselves up at a village in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, at the time Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was visiting the city.
Osibanjo was in Maiduguri to assess the security situation in the state capital, and visit the Internally Displaced Persons camps, before proceeding to Yola, another northeast Nigerian city plagued by Boko Haram insurgency, on a similar mission.
The two suicide bombers, a male and a female, who were suspected to have sneaked into town from Sambisa forest, blew themselves up in Molai Leprosy/General Hospital which is about 100 metres from a new market barely an hour after the vice president arrived the city at 10:45 am and was going about his assignment.
According to witnesses, the first bomber, a female, suspected to be in her teens, had explosives planted around her body, concealed with her garment. She was seen near the main gate of Mulai General Hospital, 10 kilometres southwest of Maiduguri.
An eye witness, Samaila Babayo, who spoke with journalists said: “I saw the woman trying to find her way into the hospital. She covered herself with a hijab and wanted to enter the hospital but was forced to stop while approaching the facility.
“I strongly suspect that the explosives in her body were remotely controlled because while guards at the gate of the hospital were shouting at her, we heard a loud bang and that was all. She was completely torn to shreds by the explosive.”
The witness said immediately, the second bomber, who was riding a bicycle arrived a spot near the perimeter fencing of the hospital and immediately detonated the explosive on him.
One of the security operatives at the hospital said: “The two bombers wanted to enter the hospital, one was a lady and the other a man of about 20 years, who rode on bicycle, through the back of the hospital.
“But when the gate guards denied them entry, the explosives in their bodies detonated and killed them,” he said.
Two persons were said to have been injured by the explosions while residents, including staff and patients at the hospital, scampered for safety.
Mato Abdulmuminu, a trader who has a stall opposite the hospital, said: “From the way the lady was advancing towards the hospital, it was immediately suspected that the lady had a sinister motive. The people began to shout at her so she began to turn back and then the bomb went off. The second bomb blew almost immediately.”
Source: Vanguard
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