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17 killed as boko haram bomb Borno Village

Published

10 years ago

March 23, 2014

At least 17 people have been killed by an explosion in a
village market in Borno State in an attack blamed on Boko Haram
Islamists, a local police chief said on Sunday.
The deadly blast struck a busy marketplace late on Thursday in the
remote village of Nguro-Soye, injuring many more, said police chief
Lawan Tanko.
News on the attack was slow to emerge after insurgents destroyed
nearby telecom towers, shutting down communications in the area.
“An explosion in the market in Nguro-Soye killed 17 people,” Tanko
told AFP, adding that police were investigating the source of the
explosion.
“The attack on Nguro-Soye, as in previous attacks, is the handiwork
of Boko Haram insurgents.”
Residents who fled the village to the state capital Maiduguri put the
death toll at nearly 30, and said more people were hurt.
Ammunitions used the Boko Haram insurgents
“They (attackers) fired RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) on the
market and opened fire, killing 29 people,” said local trader Hamisu
Ibrahim.
“Many people were injured in the attack and the stampede that
followed,” said Ibrahim.
Nguro-Soye lies close to the town of Bama where 60 people were
killed last month in coordinated bomb and gun attacks by Boko Haram
that burnt half the town.
Deadly attacks blamed on the sect have intensified since the turn of the
year, making it one of the bloodiest since the insurgency began in 2009.
So far in 2014 some 700 people have been killed in more than 40
incidents, according to Human Rights Watch.
“There is an ongoing military operation in the area (Borno) against
the group and the attack was likely in frustration over their losses,”
Tanko said.
“It is not established whether the attack explosion at the market which
killed 17 people was as a result of planted IED (improvised explosive
device) or RPG.”
Tens of thousands have fled for their lives in the restive northeast of
Nigeria, either in fear of further attacks or after militants razed their
homes and businesses.
A wave of attacks on education targets, including the slaughter of
boarding school students in their beds while they slept, has prompted
international condemnation.
Authorities in Borno state have shut indefinitely all public secondary
schools after 43 students were shot and hacked to death by suspected
Boko Haram gunmen last month.