Mine blast kills eight, wounds 21 in northeast Nigeria

At least eight people were killed and 21 others wounded Saturday when a bus hit a landmine in northeast Nigerian Borno state, the epicentre of militant violence, the state governor said.

Boko Haram is suspected of having planted the landmine on the 100-kilometre (about 62 miles) highway linking state capital Maiduguri and the town of Damboa, said Governor Babagana Umara Zulum.

The Damboa-Maiduguri highway had seen a lull in landmine explosions targeting motorists in the last year, said Zulum. Troops fighting the militants closed it for a month for security reasons.

The militants were able "to come and plant an IED (improvised explosive device) because of lack of vehicular movement along the road", said Zulum.

"We shall ensure that movement from Maiduguri to Damboa continues, this will not deter us from following the road," he added.

Boko Haram and rival ISWAP (Daesh West Africa Province) have been launching sporadic ambushes on convoys.

They have increasingly resorted to planting landmines on highways after being pushed out of swathes of territory they once controlled.

Earlier Saturday, a landmine killed one soldier and wounded four others when their armoured military vehicle drove over it near the town of Wulgo close to the border with Cameroon, said Nigerian military sources.

Two weeks ago ISWAP attacked a military base in Wulgo housing Cameroonian troops, killing 25 soldiers, burning down the base and carrying off weapons and military vehicles, according to Nigerian intelligence sources.

Zulum warned last week that Borno state was witnessing a resurgence of Boko Haram attacks. They have reclaimed three districts in the Lake Chad region where they had been pushed out.

The conflict, which started in 2009, has killed 40,000 and forced around two million to flee their homes in the northeast.

The violence has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, leading to the creation of regional force to fight the militants.

___

Source: TRT