Two suicide bombers killed at least eight people on Saturday in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the heart of a seven-year-old insurgency by Islamist Boko Haram militants, the military said.
Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility the attacks bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram which has been trying to set up an Islamic state in the northeast, killing thousands and displacing more than two million people. The Nigerian Military also readily blamed the terrorist group for the attacks.
In one attack a woman who blew herself up at 0600 GMT in front of the Bakasi camp for displaced persons on Maiduguri`s outskirts, killing five men and wounding 11 women, the Army said in a statement.
At about the same time another female suicide bomber blew herself up while trying to enter a fuel depot of state oil firm NNPC, killing three persons, the army said.Residents saw bodies being carried into an ambulance by government emergency services.Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria`s Army, aided by troops from neighboring countries, has recaptured most of the territory. The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.
These latest attacks are coming weeks after the terrorists released some 21 girls out of the over 200 they abducted over two years ago from the region. The terms of the release up till now is still shrouded in secrecy as the government has not come out in clear terms on how they were able to secure the release of the girls. Many believe top commanders of the terrorist group who were earlier arrested by the previous government were swapped for the girls.
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