Two suicide bombers kill three in north Nigeria mosque

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Two suicide bombers killed three Muslim worshippers in a mosque in a northeast Nigerian town still being rebuilt after virtual destruction by Boko Haram in 2014, sources told AFP Sunday.

The bombers, a man and a woman, detonated their explosives inside the mosque during morning prayers on Saturday in the town of Bama in Borno state.

The pair “blew themselves up in a mosque while people were praying, killing three people,” said Baba Shehu Gulumba, Bama local government chairman.

A senior military officer in Bama confirmed the death toll, adding that nine people were also injured.

“Some of the injured are in a critical condition and may hardly make it. They have been transferred to Maiduguri for better medical care,” said the military officer, who asked not to be named.

The attack came two weeks after residents began returning to the town which was destroyed by Boko Haram four years ago.

Bama, a major trading hub on the road to Cameroon and home to 270,000 people, was captured in September 2014, forcing residents to flee to Maiduguri, the state capital.

When it was retaken by the Nigerian military in March 2015, 85 percent of the town had been demolished by the jihadists.

Borno state officials said it would require 40 billion naira (94 million euros, $111 million) to rebuild the town, a staggering amount in the impoverished region.

According to officials 11,000 homes had been rebuilt which residents said represent one-third of those destroyed.

On April 5 the state’s information commissioner Mohammed Bulama said 1,200 people had returned to the town in a phased resettlement of the 100,000 displaced residents living in camps in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram has been notorious for suicide attacks on civilian and military targets in response to army offensives that have put pressure on the militant group.

Recent days have seen a lull in such attacks.

However on Friday 10 people including four militia fighting the militants were injured when two female suicide bombers attacked Amarwa village in Konduga district, 38 kilometres from Maiduguri, according to militia sources.