Sunday’s attacks are the latest in a string blamed on Boko Haram that have killed more than 200 people over the past week in northeast Nigeria.
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The first attack happened at Malari village along Bama/Konduga highway when a female suicide bomber detonated Improvised Explosive Devise (IED), strapped to her body, killing herself and seven others. A soldier also died, ‘ the Nigerian army said in a statement without specifying the sex of the bombers.
“Since the military have repelled the insurgents from destroying this village, the people should not run and flee to Maiduguri for safety, but return to your homes which were burnt apart from the torched shops and local market”, Shettima said.
The governor, while addressing surviving residents of Zabarmari, urged the fleeing villagers trooping to Maiduguri to return to their respective houses.
Boko Haram, which is fighting to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria and has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group, has intensified its campaign of violence since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29.
Fighters from the Islamist militant group stormed the village of Zabarmari on the outskirts of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Friday evening.
While they also have attacked churches, many more Muslims are among an estimated 13,000 people killed in the six-year-old Islamic uprising. Is government saying that it cannot continue with the current anti insurgency war or what?
“This corresponds well with the spirit we had at our last summit in Paris to take important decisions about Boko Haram, whose threat is getting stronger”, Hollande said.
Another scholar, Mallam Goni Yahuza, pointed out that negotiating with the insurgents was a sign of weakness on the government’s part. As it stepped up cross-border attacks, Nigeria and its neighbours formed a multinational army that this year drove them out of towns and villages.
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A new regional force comprising 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin is due to deploy at the end of the month.
