At least three people were killed and six others injured Friday in suicide attacks in Nigeria’s northeast Borno State blamed on Boko Haram Islamists, vigilantes told AFP.
Two bombers blew themselves up at a security checkpoint outside Sabon Gari village in Biu district, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of state capital Maiduguri, killing two civilian vigilantes and injuring four people.
Earlier, a young male bomber riding a motorcycle detonated his explosives in nearby Kimba village, killing one person and injuring two others.
“Three people, including two of our colleagues, died in two suicide blasts in Sabon Gari and Kimba villages,” said Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian vigilante from Biu, 35 kilometres from the blast scenes.
Civilian vigilantes, assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram jihadists, set up a checkpoint outside Sabon Gari village following intelligence report that the Islamists were planning an attack on the village, Karimbe said.
Two young men who refused to be searched when the bus they were travelling in was stopped at the checkpoint detonated their explosives as two vigilantes accosted them, he added.
About an hour earlier, a female suicide bomber’s explosives were detonated when she was shot by a soldier at the checkpoint after she refused to be searched, but no one was hurt, Karimbe said
His account was backed up by fellow vigilante Musa Suleiman.
The young male suicide bomber rode into Kimba village on a motorcycle, a banned mode of transport for security reasons “but before people realised his motive he detonated his explosives,” Suleiman said.
“One person was killed and two others were injured,” he said.
Biu and neighbouring villages have been repeatedly hit by suicide and bomb attacks blamed on Boko Haram whose six-year old insurgency has killed 17,000 people and displaced 2.1 million others.
