Bomb Blasts Kill 18, Injure 37 In Borno

• COAS Tasks Troops On Courage, Loyalty
BORNO State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aderemi Opadokun, yesterday confirmed the killing of 14 people in Gumsuri village on the outskirts of Maiduguri metropolis, after two suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers detonated their strapped Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at a mosque while the moslem faithful were conducting their Thursday prayers at 6.35pm.
Opadokun said 15 people who injured in the blasts were taken to the Maiduguri Specialist Hospital and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital by the rescue team of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) led by its Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Mohammed Kanar.
In a text message to The Guardian in Maiduguri, Opadokun said: “Two suspected bombers detonated IEDs in and outside a mosque of the Maiduguri village of Molai. The mosque consequently collapsed, injuring many people praying inside. Casualties have been evacuated to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.”
Investigations, according to him, were in progress and normalcy has been restored in the village with increased patrol of the Molai and Damboa road and environs.
Meanwhile, barely 12 hours after Thursday’s twin blasts, three suspected female Boko Haram suicide bombers also attacked Umarari village with “hidden strapped” IEDs, killing four people including two children in the early hours of yesterday. Umarari is farming community and 15 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital.
According to Umarari village head, Alhaji Bako Bulama, 22 people were also injured in the blasts and were evacuated to the Specialist Hospital Maiduguri yesterday morning by the rescue team of NEMA.
“We were shocked and terrified with these blasts that shattered the lives and property of my people in the early hours of Friday at 5.07am. You can see the bodies of four villagers, along with their two children killed by female suicide bombers last night. The vigilante youths however intervened by chasing one of the insurgents into the bush on bicycles and he was arrested this morning,” Bulama said.
He said one of the female suicide bombers detonated the explosives at the hut of a villager who was asleep before the early morning prayers.
The GUARDIAN