Suicide Bomber Kill 5, Injure 10 in Leprosy Hospital Near Maiduguri, Nigeria

At least five people have been killed and 10 wounded after a suicide bomber blew self up outside a leprosy hospital on the outskirts of Maiduguri, emergency services said.

According to AFP, the bomber, who tried to gain access to the hospital, detonated his explosives outside the building at around 5:30 pm (1630 GMT) on Saturday.

“Five people were killed and 10 others injured near the Molai leprosy hospital when a male bomber blew himself up,” said Mohammed Kanar, regional coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

“The bomber had wanted to get entry into the hospital but was contemplating how to pass through security checks at the gate when the bomb went off.”

He added: “We took the bodies and the injured to the specialist hospital (in Maiduguri).”

Local resident Ibrahim Bulama said the bomber was one of the three men who were dropped off near the hospital by an SUV vehicle.

“They looked around for a while, obviously trying to sneak into the hospital,” Bulama said, adding that the facility was being guarded by civilian vigilantes who are assisting the military in the fight against Boko Haram Islamist insurgents.

“Suddenly, the explosives on one of them went off. The other two fled in the confusion. Five people were killed and 10 others injured,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Borno State, where the attack took place, has been the hardest hit by the Boko Haram insurgency which has left at least 15,000 people dead.

Boko Haram, which has been fighting to establish a hardline Islamic state in North-east Nigeria since 2009, has intensified its campaign of violence in the last month.

Danlami Ajaokuta, a civilian vigilante fighting Boko Haram, confirmed the hospital explosion and added that there had been a failed suicide attack by two women in Jakarna village, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Maiduguri on Saturday afternoon.

“Two female suicide bombers died when the explosives on one of them went off prematurely while they were waiting for a bus along the highway in Jakarna,” Ajaokuta said.

“Residents from the village heard a huge explosion and when they arrived at the scene they found one of the bombers in parts while the other lay dead face down.

“Her explosives were still intact.”

Ajaokuta added that bus drivers have been refusing to pick up female passengers on the road outside Maiduguri since March, when three female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a bus stop in the area.

The armies of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun have been fighting a joint campaign against Boko Haram for several months, pushing militants out of captured towns and villages.

Reacting to the attacks, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday condemned in strong terms, the latest terrorist attacks on Borno and Yobe communities by the Islamist terrorists group.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, the president said he was deeply touched by the mindless incidents of violence on innocent people during the month of Ramadan.

He described the terrorists as “enemies of everybody, and enemies of humanity everywhere”.

He explained that no sane people who believe in any God would destroy the lives of innocent people in cold blood, adding that the terrorists do not represent any religion.

The president stated that the pattern of their indiscriminate violence against innocent people showed that they represented nothing else but anarchy and devilry.

In what appeared to be one of his toughest expressions of outrage, Buhari reminded the terrorists of his uncompromising resolve to tackle them with all the resources at the disposal of his government.

“Make no mistake about it: this government is ever determined to discharge its fundamental duty of protecting the lives of its citizens from physical threats, from any groups bent on creating chaos, confusion, and on destroying the social and economic life of the people” the president warned.

Buhari, who extended his sympathy to the families of the victims, reassured all Nigerians that his government would never succumb to terrorist blackmail, adding that security forces would confront the Boko Haram bandits to the last man.

Describing the terrorists as cowards who lack moral inhibition and any iota of humanity to reason compassionately, he vowed that they would be hunted down without mercy and compromise.

Source:
ThisDay Newspaper