An Improvised Explosive Device, IED, suspected to be planted by Boko Haram insurgents reportedly blew up on Wednesday at a tea joint in Kawuri village, killing at least 19 people, leaving more than a dozen injured, security sources said on Thursday.
The incident at Kawuri village comes three days after insurgents stormed a police station at Jakana town in the same Konduga LGA of Borno State.
“There was an explosion at a tea joint in Kawuri around 8:00 pm yesterday. We have recovered 19 dead bodies and 27 injured,” Ibrahim Liman, a member of an anti-jihadist militia that works with the army, told journalists.
Two other militiamen confirmed the toll in Kawuri, around 50 kilometres from the state capital Maiduguri.
However, no group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s blast, but the Boko Haram terrorist group and their rivals Islamic State West Africa Province are both active in Borno.
Militants still carry out ambushes, roadside bombings and kidnappings from rural hideouts, but bomb attacks in towns and villages are now less common in the northeast.
“Boko Haram struck in Kawuri last night. They took us all by surprise because it has been a while without such attacks,” Babakura Kolo, a militia commander said.
READ ALSO: Suicide bomber attacks wedding party, kills six in Borno State
He said the wounded were transported to hospitals in Maiduguri.
This latest blasts is coming barely 24 hours after an accountant working with the Local Education Authority in Damboa Local Government Area, Shettima Mustapha lost his life when their vehicle stumbled on an IEDs Along Maiduguri -Damboa-Biu federal highway in Borno with others injured.
Likewise, about a month ago, multiple suicide Bombings took place in Gwoza Local Government Area of the state, leaving 32 people dead with over 100 injured.
Large bomb attacks have become rare since Nigeria’s army pushed militants back from territory they controlled at the height of the conflict in 2014. Chadian forces helped drive jihadists out.
Tackling insecurity was one of the priorities for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he came to office more than a year ago.
Nigeria’s armed forces are also fighting heavily armed gangs in the country’s northwest.
More than 40,000 people have been killed by the jihadist conflict in the northeast and another two million displaced since 2009.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also been displaced in the northwest and central states of Nigeria, where gangs known locally as bandits target villages and farms for mass kidnapping for ransom.
Credible News.ng
