Blasts, gunshots rock Maiduguri

MAIDUGURI (AFP) – Three
explosions and gunshots
rocked Nigeria’s restive
city of Maiduguri, the
hotbed of deadly Islamist
insurgency, but it was
unclear if anyone was
hurt, security sources
said Friday.
“In the late hours we had
two explosions followed
by sporadic gunshots. I
don’t have any further
information now on
casualties,” a security
official, who did not want
to be named, told AFP of
the incident on Thursday
night.
He said the attack
happened near a church
in an area where a
mosque owned by Boko
Haram was razed during
a 2009 crackdown on the
Islamist group.
AFP saw truckloads of
soldiers deployed to the
area of the attack on
Friday morning.
The military and residents
reported a third blast on
Thursday at a different
area of the city.
“There was a blast in an
open field by the
riverside. We still don’t
know who the target
was but nobody was
hurt,” military spokesman
Sagir Musa told AFP.
Residents said it
happened near a football
field where a match was
being played and caused
people to flee.
Maiduguri, the capital of
Borno state and the
home base of Boko
Haram, has seen some of
the worst violence
blamed on the extremist
sect, which has focused
its attacks on the mainly
Muslim north.
Boko Haram’s increasingly
bloody insurgency has
claimed more than 1,000
lives since mid-2009.

Source: Vanguard Newspaper