12 KILLED IN NIGERIA MOSQUE SUICIDE ATTACK

Maiduguri, Nigeria, 13 Sya’ban 1436/31 May 2015 (MINA) – At least 12 people were killed and 14 critically injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in the northeastern Maiduguri city.

The attack took place only hours after 16 people were killed during raids by the radical Boko Haram movement in the outskirts of the commercial city.

“We have 12 casualties now and 14 persons critically injured,” Baba Shehu, the head of a local vigilante group, told Anadolu Agency as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

“It was a suicide bombing by a leprous man who entered a mosque in Monday market and detonated explosives wired to his body,” he added.

Shehu said earlier that his group and rescue workers had evacuated ten dead victims from the scene of the attack.

Nigeria’s military is yet to comment on the attack, the fifth to take place in the same market since 2013.

Maiduguri is the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency. The group’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in police custody six years ago.

The Nigerian army has largely degraded the group’s capability after recapturing most of the towns under its control.

Nevertheless, analysts have warned that Boko Haram could be regrouping in a bid to launch fresh onslaughts across the region.

Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari has made crushing the militants a priority of his administration.

In his inaugural speech on Friday, he ordered the military command center relocated to Maiduguri so as to face the terrorists frontally. (T/P001/NMT)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)