Five people have been killed and scores injured after a suicide bomber targeting worshippers at a mosque in Konduga, Borno State, PMNews has reported, citing a security source.
The anonymous source said the pick-up truck conveying the suicide bomber approached the mosque as Muslims were observing Friday prayers. A local vigilante group however stopped the truck to inspect it and the bomber then detonated the bomb a few metres from the mosque, he said.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Islamist sect group Boko Haram has been suspected to be responsible.
According to a witness, Mohammadu Sheriff vigilantes conducting checks on a pick-up van were seen carrying firewood, but it suddenly exploded.
“It would have been more devastating if the bomber had succeeded in driving near the mosque, which had over a thousand people in it,” Sheriff told Reuters.
Boko Haram has been unleashing terror on the country since 2009. It has however gone unabated despite emergency rule in the northeast, the hardest hit region in Nigeria. The government has always assured citizens that it was doing its best to end the insurgency but attacks have continued and has become more frequent since the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok. The sect wants an Islamic state and want western education abolished.
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