ABUJA: Three Nigerian soldiers were killed, and 11 other people, including seven civilians, were wounded by a highway bomb in northeast Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, where militants are active, military and militia sources said on Friday.
The sources said a military patrol vehicle hit a mine on the highway 10 kilometers (six miles) from Banki in Borno state late on Thursday, killing three soldiers and seriously injuring four others.
On Saturday, a truck carrying residents from the regional capital Maiduguri to Banki for governorship and state assembly elections was also caught in the blast, with seven passengers sustaining shrapnel injuries.
“Three soldiers died in the explosion, and four others were badly injured while seven civilians were also injured,” anti-militant militia Usman Hamza said.
Hamza accused the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group, which is active in the region, of planting the bomb.
Violence in Nigeria
A military officer and another militia member who asked not to be identified gave the same toll.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for official comment.
Banki, 130 kilometers southeast of Borno state capital Maiduguri, houses some 45,000 people displaced by the militancy conflict in a sprawling camp.
ISWAP and rival Boko Haram have launched several attacks in and around Banki, targeting troops and the displaced.
According to the UN, the decade-long militancy conflict has killed 40,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast.
The violence spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting the creation 2015 of a regional military coalition to fight the militants. – AFP
