Suicide Bombers Kill 31 In Borno

Suspected Boko Haram jihadists killed, at least, 31 people in a twin suicide bomb attack on a town in northeast Nigeria, a local official and militia leader said, yesterday.
Two blasts ripped through the town of Damboa in Borno State last Saturday evening targeting people returning from celebrating the Eid el-Fitr holiday, in an attack bearing all the hallmarks of Boko Haram.
Following the suicide bombings, the jihadists fired rocket-propelled grenades into the crowds that had gathered at the scene of the attacks, driving the number of casualties higher.
“There were two suicide attacks and rocket-propelled grenade explosions in Damboa last night which killed 31 people and left several others injured,” militia leader Babakura Kolo, said.
Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives in Shuwari and nearby Abachari neighbourhoods in the town around 10:45 pm (2145GMT), killing six residents, Kolo said in Maiduguri, the state capital, 88 kilometres from the town.
“No one needs to be told this is the work of Boko Haram,” Kolo said.
A local government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the death toll.
“The latest death toll is now 31 but it may increase because many among the injured may not survive,” said the official.
“Most of the casualties were from the rocket projectiles fired from outside the town minutes after two suicide bomber attacked,” he said.
The jihadist group has deployed suicide bombers, many of them young girls, in mosques, markets and camps housing people displaced by the nine-year insurgency which has devastated Nigeria’s northeast.
On May 1, at least, 86 people were killed in twin suicide blasts targeting a mosque and a nearby market in the town of Mubi in neighbouring Adamawa State.
President Muhammadu Buhari came into power in 2015 vowing to stamp out Boko Haram but the jihadists continue to stage frequent attacks, targeting both civilians and security forces.
The militants stormed the Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi, last February 19, seizing over 100 schoolgirls in a carbon copy of the abduction in Chibok on April 14, 2014 that caused global outrage.
In another development, at least, 29 people have been arrested over the killing of a man at Masaka in the Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
The victim, whose name was given simply as Ibrahim, was said to have met his fate on June 15 during a cult clash.
The spokesman of the Nasarawa State Police Command, Samaila Usman, who confirmed the development, yesterday, explained that two young men were earlier brought to the Masaka Police Station at about 11:30 p.m. on June 13 with various degrees of injuries.
He said that investigations revealed that the injuries were sustained during a cult clash at Angwan Jaba community in Masaka.
“A combined team of police officers were immediately dispatched to the area to bring the situation under control.
“But our men met stiff resistance from the cult members, numbering about 50.
“We were, however, able to disperse them while five of them were arrested at the scene and 24 others arrested later at different locations in the area,” he said.
Usman said that one Hassan later reported at the Masaka Police Station that his cousin, named Ibrahim, was macheted to death at Angwan Tiv.
“So, the police immediately mobilised to the place and collected the corpse but the parents refused us taking the corpse to the mortuary.
“There are concentrations of organised cult groups in Angwa Tiv and Angwa Jaba in Karu but we are on top of the situation.
“That is why we have launched ‘Operation Fish Out’ and created anti-cultism units to fight cultism in Nasarawa State,” he added.
Meanwhile, about 30 people have been feared dead following heavy windstorm in Bauchi metropolis and environs, late Saturday.
Among places mostly affected include Tirwun, Tudun Salmanu, Railway and Kandahar.
The subsequent rainfall, which lasted several hours, forced Muslim Ummah celebrating Ed-el fitir to retire home for safety.
Shops, domestic animals and businesses were affected in almost all the towns.
It would be recalled that several people were rendered homeless.
In Tirwun suburb, Baban Kura told our correspondent that he slept outside with his family after losing the entire house to windstorm.
“I lost everything to the windstorm while my daughter critically injured and now currently bedridden in hospital. However, several people that suffered injury are currently receiving medical treatment in the hospital”, he said.
It was gathered that a family lost a husband and two children after the entire house sunk. Only the mother escaped.
In the same vein, the staff quarters belonging to Nigerian Railway Corporation was seriously affected.
A public commentator, Sani Alamin Muhammad said that the several people died while property worth millions was lost.
“I am saddened by this natural disaster because is the first of its kind. I am calling on federal and state governments to intervene to resettle the victims of the windstorm”.
When contacted, Bauchi State Police Command spokesman, DSP Datti Kamal Abubakar, said: “We have placed our men strategically to curb hoodlums taking advantage of the disaster to loot properties belonging to the victims of the windstorm disaster”.
He added that the command was already assisting other agencies in rescue operation and evacuation.
Spokesman for Bauchi State Emergency Management Agency could not be reached for comments.