50 killed in multiple blasts in Nigeria’s Borno state

Suspected Boko Haram extremists killed at least 54 people when they detonated explosive devices in crowded places in Maiduguri, the capital of the north-eastern state of Borno, Nigerian police said.

The residents of the troubled town were thrown into apprehension last Sunday evening when bomb explosions were heard, a sound which re-echoed all over the town.

In another development, some suspected members of Boko Haram sect ambushed an operational vehicles of security operatives along Maiduguri- Dikwa- Gamboru Ngala road on Saturday. “Total casualty figure is now 54”, Victor Isuku, a police spokesman in Maiduguri, told Reuters.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram’s six-year-old uprising which has displaced 2.1 million people across three countries.

Buhari’s March election victory owed much to his vow to defeat the insurgents, but there was a spike in attacks across northern Nigeria in the two months following his inauguration and Maiduguri was hit on a near weekly basis.

“This would enable the security take appropriate measures against them.The Department of State Services is also on the trail of the perpetrators of this heinous and dastardly act”.

He said, “Just as people were scampering and running away from the direction of the mosque, a second bomb was detonated about 100 metres away”.

He said it was possible the death toll from the attack could rise. Boko Haram’s preferred battle tactics have been to bomb well attended public venues. “They are all liars”.

“We are still at battle ground”, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of terrorist group said in audio recording posted on YouTube that couldn’t immediately be verified.

“We are alive, I am alive, this is my voice, more audible than it was before”.

Nigeria’s military has claimed successes in overrunning rebel positions in recent weeks and claims the militants are in disarray.

Three explosions have ripped through the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri killing at least 8 people.