Suicide bomber kills five soldiers in northeast Nigeria: sources

Soldiers have been battling with jihadist insurgents in the area for more than a decade – Copyright AFP ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

Adamu Aliyu Ngulde

A suicide bomber struck a military position in northeastern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, killing at least five soldiers, security and local defence sources said.

The attacker targeted a military position in Firgi near the town of Pulka in Borno state on Sunday, sources told AFP on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Militants have intensified raids on military bases in the northeast this year, as a years-long jihadist insurgency grinds on.

“I counted five bodies lying in blood at the back of my house,” said Umar Sa’idu, a member of a community government-sponsored militia group, who helped transport the victims to hospital.

“After some hours, medical personnel at UMTH (University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital) confirmed that all five victims we gave escort to had died,” he told AFP by phone.

Suicide bombings, one of the defining tactic of Boko Haram a the height of the insurgency more than a decade ago, have become less frequent in recent years as the military has made inroads against the group.

Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba, the military’s spokesman in the northeast, confirmed the attack but not the deaths.

“Our gallant soldiers shot the attacker when he attempted to carry out the bombing in their own position,” Uba told AFP.

“Unfortunately, our gallant soldiers sustained varying degrees of injury and are currently receiving medical care.”

Sa’idu said the bomber was a suspected Boko Haram member thought to have come from nearby Mandara Mountains.  

According to Bukar Aji, a local hunter, the assailant approached the soldiers and detonated an explosive device strapped to his body.

Police confirmed the attack, but did not give details.

– Spilling over borders –

Pulka lies close to the Mandara Mountains, a rugged and sparsely governed border region that stretches between Nigeria and Cameroon and has long served as a refuge for jihadist militants linked to Boko Haram and its splinter factions.

Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009 and the conflict has killed at least 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast, according to the UN.

Though the violence has waned since its peak a decade ago, it has spilt into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

And concerns are growing about a resurgence of violence in parts of the northeast, where insurgent groups remain capable of mounting deadly attacks despite years of sustained military operations.

The last major suicide attack came in June when a woman allegedly acting for Boko Haram killed 20 anti-jihadist fighters in Borno state.

In January, military sources said at least 27 soldiers were killed in a jihadist blast in a wasteland straddling Borno and Yobe states — one of the deadliest suicide attacks on Nigerian soldiers in recent years.