One soldier was killed and 20 others were injured in a Boko Haram rocket attack in northeast Nigeria, security sources said yesterday, just hours before elections began.
A civilian militia source in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, told reporters that “at least 13” blasts were heard throughout the city at about 6am.
Residents also confirmed hearing the explosions, while one of two security sources said: “Boko Haram terrorists attempted to enter the city, but were intercepted.”
Photo: Reuters
“They resorted to firing RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] on the city,” the source said. “Attempts have been made to locate the source of the firing.”
The second source said that one of the explosions happened at the headquarters of the Nigerian Army 7th Division as troops prepared to go out on operations.
“One soldier was killed and 20 were injured. There were other explosions at Maimalari barracks, but there were no casualties,” he said.
“Troops are out searching for the location of the firing,” he said.
Three of the mortars fell in an open rice field in the Teachers Village camp for people displaced by the conflict, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
A fighter jet was seen flying over the city in the search for the source of the attacks.
There was no official comment from the military, but Borno police commissioner Damian Chukwu denied any attack.
There was “no threat to public peace and order,” Chukwu said.
“The gunfire was not targeted at members of the public, but was for security purpose,” he said.
Voting began from 7am GMT, with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general who has vowed to defeat the militants, seeking a second term.
Security sources also reported clashes between the military and suspected Boko Haram fighters in Auno, on the border of Borno with Yobe State.
An attack in the town of Geidam, north of the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, also forced residents to flee, they said.
The early morning explosions in Maiduguri come after a Boko Haram attack late on Friday on Zabarmari Village, 10km outside the city.
Boko Haram’s insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed more than 27,000 people and left 1.8 million homeless, creating a humanitarian crisis.
The government and military have repeatedly said that the militants are weakened to the point of defeat, despite persistent hit-and-run raids and suicide bomb attacks.
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