Two suicide bombers kill at least 8 in northeast Nigerias Maiduguri

Two suicide bombers killed at least eight people on Saturday (October 29) in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the military said.

The city is at heart of a seven-year-old insurgency by Islamist Boko Haram militants.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attacks bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram which has been trying to set up an Islamic state in the northeast, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.

In one attack, a woman travelling on a motor scooter blew herself up at about 0600 GMT while trying to enter a fuel depot of state oil firm NNPC, killing three persons, the army said in a statement.

At about the same time, another female suicide bomber blew herself up in front of the Bakasi camp for displaced persons on Maiduguri’s outskirts, killing five men and wounding 11 women, the army said.

Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from neighbouring countries, has recaptured most of the territory.

The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.