In addition to schools and police and government buildings, Boko Haram has been known to target churches, as evidenced by a rash of church attacks in June 2013 that left more than 50 people dead and a November 2011 string of attacks that included assaults on 11 churches.
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Witnesses say he detonated his explosives just as the Sunday service got underway, killing five people on the spot including himself.
The blast in Potiskum in Yobe state yesterday came after an attack on the capital of neighbouring Borno state on Friday, fatal raids in three towns during the week and suicide bombings on a highway.
The attacker entered the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the Jigawa area on the outskirts of Potiskum and detonated his explosives. A police officer told AFP news agency that four people were killed instantly and that a fifth died later in hospital.
Following a major army campaign earlier this year, local analysts had warned that the military’s claims of having reigned in Boko Haram were premature, asserting that the group – which had appeared to be on the run – was merely regrouping.
“I urge all Nigerians to continue to pray for peace in Nigeria and to support the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as the government does its best to bring an end to these acts of terror and secure all Nigerians”, a statement, personally signed, on his verified Facebook page said.
“I saw him walked into the church and he didn’t raise any suspicion”. “The dismembered body of the bomber was also recovered”.
According to an AFP tally, more than 650 people have lost their lives since then.
Women who claim they lived in the same camps as some of the 219 girls who were taken from their school in the town of Chibok last April told the British Broadcastiong Corporation (BBC) last week that many are now administering punishments on behalf of Boko Haram.
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“Nonetheless, very senior officers and military psychologists have revved up their efforts in assuring combatants that AI reports were meant exactly to achieve that same negative objective of dampening morale and so, they must never allow the enemies of Nigeria to win”, a source disclosed.
