The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Maiduguri

  • 2 suspected suicide bombers killed in Maiduguri

    Two suspected female suicide bombers were shot dead by security agents in Maiduguri on Saturday.

    A statement by the spokesman of the Police Command in Borno, Victor Isuku, disclosed that the bombers were shot when they attempted to enter Maiduguri through the Umarari in Molai, near Damboa road.

    “On Saturday at about 20:45hrs, two female suspected suicide bombers, of about 18 years of age, attempted to enter Maiduguri through Umarari in Molai General Area which is about 9 Kilometres to the township.

    “They were sighted by local vigilantes- the Civilian JTF- and consequently shot dead by security personnel on duty at the area,’’ it said.

    The statement added that only the two bombers died in the incident.

    “The police Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team was mobilised to the scene to render the unexploded improvised explosive device safe, while normalcy has been restored to the area,’’ it said. (NAN)

  • Maiduguri: Three tankers bomb carried diverted petrol

    Maiduguri: Three tankers bomb carried diverted petrol

    The Borno Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) said yesterday that the three tankers destroyed by Boko Haram suicide bombers in Maiduguri on Friday, were carrying petrol meant for Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega stations.
    It said the petrol was diverted and kept in a private home.
    The Commandant of the Corps, Abdullahi Ibrahim, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri that the agency’s surveillance anti-vandal team made the discovery.
    He said that the incident would not have happened if the petrol had been taken to its destination by the petroleum marketers.
    “It was unfortunate that some individuals were hell bent on diverting petroleum products to create artificial scarcity in the town,” he said.
    “Those tankers destroyed by three female suicide bombers were meant to be in filling stations to meet local demands of motorists.
    “We have been warning them against diversion but they won’t listen. Just last week we arrested about four persons and sealed their filling stations for selling petrol above the pump price.
    “We learnt that there is a deliberate plan to create artificial scarcity in the town by hiding the product to make it scarce.
    “This development is not only anti- people but also a threat to the lives and security of the good people of the state. We therefore warn marketers and petroleum marketers to desist from hiding and diverting petrol in their homes or face the wrath of the law,” Ibrahim said.
    All the three suicide bombers died in the Friday attack.

  • Three suicide bombers killed in Borno attack

    Three suicide bombers killed in Borno attack

    Three suicide bombers were killed Friday in a pre-dawn attack close to the NNPC depot on Damboa Road, Maiduguri.

    Three fuel tankers were set ablaze in the attack, ahead of a planned visit by the United Nations Security Council to assess the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria.

    One of the bombers, an elderly woman, blew herself up beside a stationary tanker loaded with fuel around 3 a.m.

    With her was a young man in his teens and a girl who continued down the road toward the fuel depot until they were challenged by soldiers who fired at them to avert what could have been a major attack on the fuel depot.

    “We are lucky. Today could have been another sad day for us in Maiduguri,” the State Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu told reporters at the scene.

    “They (soldiers) ordered them to stop but they chose to run,” Gajibo said. “The male suicide bomber detonated his explosives near S. Baba (gas) filling station, while the girl was shot at by the military and ran under a parked truck loaded with petrol products which went up in flames” when her explosives detonated.

    Firefighters razed to the spot, opposite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to put out the fire.

    Spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abdulkadir Ibrahim confirmed three deaths.

    He said: “the fire has been brought under control while evacuation has been concluded.”

    “Three suicide bombers came into the city through Damboa around 3:00 am (0200 GMT) and they were spotted by civilian (vigilantes),” he said.

    “They quickly ran and hid under three petrol tankers, where one of them detonated his explosives, killing all of them.”

    The attack came just days before a delegation of the U.N. Security Council is due  in Maiduguri as part of a four-nation tour of countries in the Lake Chad Basin devastated by the seven-year Boko Haram uprising that has killed more than 20,000.

    Yesterday, the Security Council members were in Cameroon for meetings with top officials and an encounter with the multinational force that has been fighting Boko Haram extremists.

    Council members also plan to go to Chad and Niger, then on to Nigeria, where they are expected to visit a camp in Borno State for people displaced by Boko Haram.

  • Army parade three female suicide bombers

    Army parade three female suicide bombers

    The Nigerian Army has arrested and paraded three girls on suicide bomb mission in Borno State.
    Parading the arrested suicide bombers, the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor said the arrest of the girls has probably saved many lives as no one knows the kind of havoc they would have caused.
    He also explained that the girls were paraded to let the public know that some of the suicide missions are been averted by vigilant security personnel. 
    Major General Lucky Irabor who was speaking on a live media briefing on the activities of Operation Lafiya Dole on Wednesday, also took a swipe at Amnesty International for its report on the operation of the Nigerian Army.
    According to him, the Amnesty International is deliberately and unjustly attacking the Nigerian Army to undermine the success it has recorded on  the Boko Haram crisis.
  • North-East: Reps decry N60m grass-cutting proposal

    North-East: Reps decry N60m grass-cutting proposal

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday decried the N60 million provided by the Presidential Committee on North-East  Initiative (PCNI) in the 2017 Budget for weeding in communities ravaged by the insurgency.

    The amount is for contracts to “cut shrubs, grasses and trees” along Maiduguri-Bama road.

    The house’s Committee on Internally Displaced Persons picked out the figure when the PCNI appeared before it to defend its N45 billion budget for humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced villagers.

    Chairman of the committee, Rep. Sani Zoro and other members expressed displeasure over the provision.

    “You cannot travel this same way, awarding contracts on grasses again; it is not acceptable. Why can’t you assign this duty to the military to do it for you?

    “They can use their personnel to clear the grasses and you can drop this idea of awarding contracts with N60 million.

    “Your duty, from what we understand, is to provide succour for the displaced persons.

    “These people are traumatised and they need urgent basic amenities as they return home. Rehabilitation has to do with their survival as human beings first,’’ Zoro said.

    He challenged the PCNI to furnish the committee with its mandate, saying “You have N184 million for the screening programme for humanitarian activities, what does that mean?

    “There is N150 million on advocacy and early warning system and N165 million for conflict management.

    “You are going to deliver security equipment for N200 million. What type of security equipment? Then another N2.5 billion for security outfits.

    “Are you telling us that part of your role is to fund the operations of the military in the North-East? The military has its own budget already.

    “Why are you not talking about food, shelter, medical care and schools for these IDPs?’’

    A member of the committee, Rep. Adamu Kamale (PDP-Adamawa) said that the N45 billion budgeted for the North-East was inadequate, but decried the provision of N8.4 billion out of the money for military operations.

    Kamale argued that there was no justification for the proposal for the military in the budget.

    “PCNI is not a military agency. This N8.4 billion should be converted to the rehabilitation of burnt houses and schools.

    “I am an IDP, so I know where it pains. N5 billion out of the money can rehabilitate up to 50 per cent of the houses.

    “Again, you are just duplicating so many things in this budget. Our people back home will not forgive us if we pass this budget like this,” he said.

    Another member, Rep. Istifanus-Dung Gyang (PDP-Plateau) informed the committee that the Federal Government’s total commitment to the North-East in 2017 was “over N800 billion.”

    Gyang explained that the money was domiciled in the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government for the purpose of developing the region.

    “So, your role as PCNI is recovery. You come in after the military have completed their own role and they have their budget”, he said.

    However, the Vice-Chairman of the PCNI, Mr Tijjani Tumsah, explained that the budget was planned after due consultation with the military.

    He said that rehabilitation was the key responsibility of the PCNI as it could not be achieved if security aspect was left out.

    Tumsah said that the government would not take the risk of returning the IDPs to their villages without adequate security cover.

    “The IDPs are in camps in locations where they are safe; so, returning them home means that there is security for them.

    “Security remains a major issue in rehabilitation. There are mines everywhere. The military will have to go in there to remove them,” he added

  • Doctors without border opens feeding centre in Maiduguri

    Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as doctors with borders, has opened a new 50-bed capacity therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children in Borno State.

    The 50-bed centre is an expansion of the 100-bed feeding centre, making a total of three of such specialised centres in Maiduguri.

    The new feeding centre, which will be run by Borno State Primary healthcare, is located in Fori district. It comprises an outpatient department, also known as the ambulatory therapeutic feeding centre, and the inpatient department, also known as the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre.

    Field Coordinator Cathy Hansens said the centre started receiving children on Saturday.

    “In the outpatient programme, malnourished children are enrolled in a nutrition programme where they get medical follow-up every fortnight. Sick children also get plumpy nut ration. Severe acutely malnourished children presented with complications are admitted to the in-patient department for as long as they need close medical follow-up.

    “We have so far in the outpatient programme, after three weeks, 120 children and 15 in the in-patient department. Here,  we attend to children with severe complications,” Hansens said.

    He added that MSF has a team of community health workers who go into the community to test children for malnutrition and educate parents on the need to bring their children to the programme, and according to him, “the response has been encouraging”.

  • MSF opens new 50-bed feeding centre in Maiduguri

    MSF opens new 50-bed feeding centre in Maiduguri

    Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian and nongovernmental medical organisation working in Borno state, has opened a new 50-bed therapeutic feeding centre, expandable to 100 beds, for the treatment of malnourished children in Maiduguri, Borno state, bringing its total number of such specialised feeding centres in the town to three.

    The new feeding centre started receiving patients three weeks ago but was officially opened on 18 February and is situated within the compound of the state ministry of health-run primary healthcare centre in Fori district of Maiduguri. It is made up of an outpatient department referred to as the ambulatory therapeutic feeding centre and the inpatient department also known as the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre.

    In the outpatient programme, malnourished children are enrolled in a nutrition programme where they get medical follow up every two weeks and are given plumpy nut ration for the sick child. Severely acutely malnourished children presenting with complications are admitted to the inpatient department for as long as they need close medical follow up.

    “We have so far in the outpatient programme, after three weeks, 120 children and in the inpatient department we have had 15 children. The difference is that in the inpatient department we are seeing children with severe complications,” Cathy Hansens, MSF Field Coordinator says.

    MSF also has a team of community health workers going into the community to test children for malnutrition and also inform parents on the need to bring their children to the programme. The response has been encouraging.

    Explaining the impact the programme is having, Cathy remembers one patient in particular: “Two weeks ago we had a child of seven years old and when he entered the programme he was not responding. He was very shy and didn’t want to interact. He lost completely all appetite and that was why he was admitted in the inpatient department. Slowly everyday you could see how he was improving.

    He started to drink the milk, then we moved on to plumpy nut and by the time he was discharged after one week, he was smiling and very happy. He gained some weight and looked like a child his age again. It was so lovely to see and that is why we are doing this. We are very thankful to see the children improving, playing and running out of our centre healthy.”

    The organization currently has 1,649 national staff and 136 international staff working in Borno state

    MSF first started working in Nigeria in 1996, and is one of the few organisations still able to operate in hard-to-reach areas of the country

  • Boko Haram lunches midnight attack in Maiduguri

    Boko Haram lunches midnight attack in Maiduguri

    …Eight suicide bombers killed

     

    The Police in Maiduguri have confirmed a suicide attack on a convoy of commercial cars at Muna garage in Maiduguri.

    The vehicles numbering about thirteen according to a statement issued by the State Police Spokesman DSP Victor Isuku, said the vehicles were awaiting security cover from military to depart to Gamboru Ngala on Friday when a suicide bomber sneaked and detonated his explosive ridden body in the midst of the trucks.

    The statement explained that the action triggered an unprecedented explosion which razed down the parked vehicles beyond recognition.

    The statement reads; “Yesterday at about 2318hrs,  a suicide bomber sneaked into the midst of 13 pick-up trucks loaded with goods along Maiduguri/Mafa road, said to be awaiting departure to Gamboru Ngala early hours  of today and detonated IEDs strapped on self. The resulting Explosion razed down the parked vehicles beyond recognition.

    EOD/Police patrol team were promptly deployed to the scene to restore safety & normalcy”.

    The police have however denied that some gunmen on motorcycle came shooting shortly after the suicide bomber attacked the convoy.

    The casualty figure from the attack is not yet clear as some unconfirmed reports believe many people may have been feared dead during the attack.

    About eight of the suicide bombers who lunched the attack on the vehicles were said to have died in the attack.

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the bombers mostly women numbering eight in number were loaded in a Volkswagen Golf from Muna community.

    The spokesman for NEMA Sani Datti in a statement informed that the bombers attempted to run through a military check Point, adding that seven civilian JTF operatives were wounded in the event.

    The statement reads; “Yesterday (Thursday) at around 11:00pm, Boko Haram members attempted to attack Maiduguri. They came through Mafa- Dikwa road along Muna community. The suicide bombers came in a Volkswagen Golf carrying eight suicide bombers most of whom were female teenagers.

    “The driver attempted to over-run the security post where the security personnel’s were stationed, but few of the personnel’s sustained minor injuries, while the remaining bombers detonated their IED in some of the communities in Muna Dalti settlement.

    “Seven (7) Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) sustained minor injuries and were taken to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).  Some of the suicide bombers found their way to a place where people gathered with their trucks loaded with goods for onward movement to Mafa, Dikwa and Ngala LGAs.

    “Over 14 loaded trucks were burnt by the suicide bombers though no casualty was recorded. The seven corpses of the suicide bombers were evacuated to the State Specialist Hospital by NEMA and Borno SEMA team,” the statement said.

     

  • Five killed, eight injured as suicide bombers strike in Maiduguri

    Five killed, eight injured as suicide bombers strike in Maiduguri

    Two suicide bombers were killed on Thursday by the Nigerian Army as they tried to sneak into Maiduguri, the Borno‎ State capital.
    The army killed the dreaded members of the Boko Haram terrorist sect at the Mafa military checkpoint, about nine kilometres from the state capital as they tried to storm into town.
    ‎However, as Muna town heaved a sigh of relief, tragedy struck again as three teenage suicide bombers, who had successfully snuck into town, detonated their explosives.
    One of the girls detonated hers at the Muna motor park.‎ The other two attacked Muna Dalti, a community located opposite Muna Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, killing two and injuring eight members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).
    A Civilian JTF, Muhammadu Idris, told The Nation that the suicide bombers first struck around 11:30 pm at Muna Motor Park while the other attacks occurred at Muna Dalti around 2:00 a.m. this morning.
    ‎The Nation findings revealed that so far, five people have been killed including the suicide bombers.
    ‎Police Public Relations Officer, Victor Isuku, confirmed the incident although he stated that just one suicide bomber was killed.
    “Yesterday at about 2318hrs, a suicide bomber sneaked into the midst of 13 pick up trucks loaded with goods along Maiduguri/Mafa road, said to be awaiting departure to Gamboru Ngala early hrs of today and detonated IEDs strapped on self. The resulting explosion razed down the parked vehicles beyond recognition. EOD/Police patrol team were promptly deployed to the scene to restore safety & normalcy,” he said.
    The Nation however, authoritatively reports that the police arrived the scene around 8.30 am, about eight hours after the incident.

  • Two female suicide bombers intercepted in Maiduguri

    Two female suicide bombers intercepted in Maiduguri

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Borno Command, on Tuesday intercepted two female suicide bombers, who tried to ram into motorists at the NNPC Mega Station along Damboa Road, Maiduguri.

    The Commandant of the corps, Ibrahim Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Tuesday that the incident occurred at about 6.45 a.m.

    “Our personnel at the NNPC station intercepted two female suicide bombers, who were targeting motorists on the long queue at the NNPC mega petrol station at about 6.45 a.m.

    “One of the bombers got scared and threw her bomb and was instantly arrested, while the other one started running after people with her explosive but luckily, she was shot on the leg by our personnel after he chased her to a safe place.

    “We have deployed our Anti-Bomb Squad to the area,” Abdullahi said.

    The commandant said that the few insurgents remaining were looking for soft targets where they could cause havoc and appealed to all residents in Borno to be on alert and vigilant.