(Reuters) – Boko Haram insurgents attacked the outskirts of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria on Sunday, security sources said, their second assault in a week on a city they hope to make the capital of a breakaway Islamist state.
At least eight people were killed as the militants clashed with soldiers, witnesses and a hospital source said.
“There is heavy gunfire going on. Everybody is panicking and trying to flee the area,” Idris Abubakar, a resident of Polo suburb on the southwestern outskirts of the city, said.
The insurgents, who arrived in several armed pick-up trucks and on motor-bikes, attacked three places in the south of Maiduguri at around the same time, a security source said.
Troops backed by vigilantes had pushed them out of the southeastern outskirts of the city, a spokesman for a local pro-government vigilante group said.
Resident Babagana Lawan said a grenade fell on his house, killing his brother and two factory workers living with him.
In a separate incident in the town of Potiskum, 230 km (140 miles) west of Maiduguri, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the house of federal legislator, Sabo Garbu. killing 10 people, two security sources told Reuters. Garbu was unhurt.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.