Suicide bomber kills five soldiers in northeast Nigeria: sources

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: A suicide bomber struck a military position in northeastern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, killing at least five soldiers, security and local defence sources said.

The attacker targeted a military position in Firgi near Pulka, a remote town in Borno state, on Sunday, sources told AFP on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

“I counted five bodies lying in blood at the back of my house,” said Umar Sa’idu, a member of a community government-sponsored militia group, who helped transport the victims to hospital.

“After some hours, medical personnel at UMTH (University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital) confirmed that all five victims we gave escort to had died,” he told AFP by phone.

Suicide bombings, once one of the defining tactics of Boko Haram during the height of the insurgency more than a decade ago, have become less frequent in recent years as the military has made inroads against the group.

Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba, the military’s spokesman in the northeast, confirmed the attack but not the deaths.

“Our gallant soldiers shot the attacker when he attempted to carry out the bombing in their own position,” Uba told AFP.

“Unfortunately, our gallant soldiers sustained varying degrees of injury and are currently receiving medical care.”

Sa’idu said the bomber was a suspected Boko Haram member thought to have come from nearby Mandara Mountains.

According to Bukar Aji, a local hunter, the assailant approached the soldiers and detonated an explosive device strapped to his body.

Pulka lies close to the Mandara Mountains, a rugged and sparsely governed border region that stretches between Nigeria and Cameroon and has long served as a refuge for jihadist militants linked to Boko Haram and its splinter factions.