Boko Haram: Chibok Suicide Bombers Targeted Commanding Officer – Army

The Media Coordinator, Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Mustapha Anka Thursday revealed that the two female suicide bombers who detonated improvise explosives in a market at Chibok town on Wednesday were actually targeting the Commanding officer in charge of Chibok and surrounding areas.

Addressing newsmen at the Maimalari Cantonment, the Army spokesman said, the suicide bombers disguised as women and were backing babies when they were approaching the Army officer, but detonated the explosives before they could reach the Commanding Officer.

Nigeria Shuts Oil Pipelines in Wake of Bomb Attacks

Crude oil pipelines in Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta have been shut following a series of attacks late last week, the state-controlled Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Tuesday.

“We shut in the pipelines as a result of the weekend development, please note that this is different from shut down,” NNPC spokesman Ohi Alegbe told Anadolu Agency, referring to the pipelines that carry crude oil to refineries.

He denied claims that refineries in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, and Warri, an oil hub in Delta State, had been shut down in the wake of three bombings between Thursday and Saturday.

Bombings Kill At Least 30 In Northeastern Nigeria

Four women suicide bombers blew themselves up early Friday when challenged by soldiers as they tried to enter Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing at least 18 people and themselves, civilian defense fighters, the National Emergency Management Agency and witnesses said.

The explosions happened at dawn Friday, just hours after two bombs exploded near a mosque in Maiduguri, killing at least 30 people.

The agency’s northeast Nigeria coordinator, Muhammed Kanar, said 20 people were wounded in that earlier attack, some critically. Boko Haram Islamic extremists are suspected of being behind the attack.

The series of suicide bomb attacks comes even as President Muhammadu Buhari says that he expects the ‘‘final routing of Boko Haram as an organized fighting force’’ by year’s end.