Alwaght-At least 27 people have been killed in suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacks Maiduguri state of north-eastern Nigeria.
On Wednesday morning, a suspected Boko Haram bomb attack killed at least 22 Muslim worshippers in the morning at a mosque in Maiduguri the capital city of the restive Borno state. Officials say said two female suicide bombers were believed to have carried out the brutal attack, which saw 17 other people injured.
One bomber blew herself up inside the mosque and the second did so outside as survivors of the first blast tried to flee.
Coordinator Abba Aji, of the civilian Self-Defense Vigilante Group, said the mosque was in Umarari on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the command center for the Nigerian army's military campaign against the Boko Haram group. Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group is known for its use of female suicide bombers, and several suicide bombers have blown themselves up in recent months at roadblocks near the city.
Elsewhere three operatives of a local vigilante force helping Nigerian troops in the fight against Boko Haram were on Tuesday killed by a bomb planted on the road by members of the Islamic insurgent group, an official said Wednesday.
Two civilians from Huyum village in Askira Uba Local of Borno state were also killed in an ensued shootout between surviving vigilante operatives and ambushing members of Boko Haram, the official said. The spokesperson for the Vigilante Group in Borno state, Abbas Gava, told journalists on phone that his colleagues were in a patrol vehicle when they stepped on an explosive device in Huyum village.
Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group launched its first attacks in 2009 in Maiduguri and has since waged an insurgency against the Nigerian government in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 20,000 people and displacing more than 2 million. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in December 2015 that the Nigerian military had “technically” defeated the armed group—which pledged allegiance the ISIS terrorist group in March 2015—but Boko Haram has continued to carry out attacks in Nigeria and neighboring countries.
Nigeria is unable to defeat Boko Haram while it continues to illegally jail Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky a renowned Islamic scholar who is a fierce critic of the Takfiri terrorist group.
On December 12, Nigerian troops raided the home of Sheikh Zakzaky, in Zaria. What started as a targeted attack quickly devolved into carnage as soldiers opened fire on civilians leaving over one thousand member of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria dead.
Observers say where such actions might have been rationalized by officials’ allegations that the movement poses a threat to national security, it is really the community’s opposition to Boko Haram and military officials’ ties with extremist group which prompted such a sectarian witch-hunt.
