Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked Nigeria’s northern city of
Maiduguri in Borno state on Wednesday from a cashew plantation a
few
kilometres from the Giwa barracks, military sources said.
Residents said they heard heavy shooting and explosions on the outskirts and began fleeing their homes.
“I’m
trapped near the University of Maiduguri now,” local resident Kabir
Olaoye told Reuters by phone. The shooting began around 6:45 p.m. (1745
GMT), he said.
The city of around two million people is the
birthplace of the jihadi group, which has killed thousands in its
attempt to carve out an Islamist state in the country’s northeast.
Maiduguri
has not experienced an attack since two major takeover attempts in late
January and early February and several bombings in March.
Boko
Haram claimed an area larger than Belgium last year and was fast
becoming a regional threat after it increased cross-border incursions.
Chadian
and Nigerian troops entered the fray earlier this year and drove the
militants out of some key Borno towns while Cameroonian forces repelled
them from its border areas.
The Nigerian military now has the
group on the run after launching a ground offensive on their last
stronghold in the Sambisa forest reserve at the end of April.
Source:PM News
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