Nigeria Attacks: Dozens Killed In Militant Raids, Mosque Blast Since Sunday

The attacks came less than a week after President Muhammadu Buhari said in an interview with the BBC that Nigeria had “technically” won the war against Boko Haram, claiming that the Islamic militant group was no longer capable of launching “conventional, articulated attacks” in towns and population centers.

Several media outlets reported that in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Madagali on Monday, three female suicide bombers detonated explosives – two of them at a market, killing 30 people – and one at a checkpoint, killing one person.

In Maiduguri, the attack which killed 20, followed a series of gun and bomb battle between the Nigerian Army and the Boko Haram militants on Sunday and Monday.

About 72 hours to the deadline given the Nigerian military to defeat Boko Haram, the terrorists have carried out devastating attacks in two northeastern states of Adamawa and Borno.

“I believe they (our troops) have averted what would have been a major disaster if they (suicide bombers) had gained entrance into Maiduguri”, he said.

“Two female suicide bombers struck at a garage in Madagali and detonated their devices and we lost some beloved country men”, Ezugwu said.

Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at a home near Bakassi Estate, killing 18 people Sunday evening, another soldier told The Associated Press.

Boko Haram, an extremist militant group that has pledged allegiance to ISIS, has been waging attacks in Nigeria since 2009, including the 2014 abduction of more than 270 girls from a school in the town of Chibok, also in the state of Borno.

The United States government on Tuesday, December 29, condemned the awful attacks carried out by Boko Haram in Nigeria between December 25 and 28, as well as other recent attacks in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, The Punch reports. Civil servant Yunusa Abdullahi described the city as “under siege” during the insurgent operation, adding that some residents had also found undetonated bombs since, one of which reportedly went off later.

Since Buhari took office in May, the military has made significant headway in curbing the insurgency, and pushing the Islamist group – under the name Islamic State in West Africa Province – further into Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest.

The night raids were followed by an explosion Monday morning in Maiduguri, as people queued to offer morning prayers at a city mosque. The Sultan of Sokoto, spiritual leader of Nigeria’s 80 million Muslims, warned the Nigerian authorities against creating a “new Boko Haram”, an alarm echoed by the Northern Governors Forum after it met in Kaduna on 19 December. In January 2014, Boko Haram attacked the base and freed hundreds of detainees.