UPDATE: Suicide bomber kills 17 in Biu

  A suicide bomber at a bus station in Biu, Borno state killed at least 17 people on Thursday, a military source and an allied vigilante member said. A second bomber tried to detonate his explosives in the same bus station in the town, but was stopped by the crowd and beaten to death, vigilante […]

 

A suicide bomber at a bus station in Biu, Borno state killed at least 17 people on Thursday, a military source and an allied vigilante member said.

A second bomber tried to detonate his explosives in the same bus station in the town, but was stopped by the crowd and beaten to death, vigilante Ibrahim Jaton said according to Reuters.

“A young man came to Tashan Gandu motor park and our boys stopped him for search at the check point but he refused to stop and all we heard was a loud sound,” Jaton said. “The whole spot was scattered within minutes”.

The use of suicide bombers has become a common tactic of Boko Haram since last year as the group expanded territory and became stronger and more deadly.

But in the past three weeks it has begun to suffer a string of defeats in a military offensive by Nigeria and neighbours Cameroon, Niger and Chad, all of which have been destabilised by the militants. A spate of attacks on civilians by the militants in the past few days seem aimed at taking revenge.

Suicide bombers struck two bus stations in Kano and Potiskum on Tuesday, killing at least 26 people in attacks President Goodluck Jonathan blamed on Boko Haram.

Two people aboard a horse-drawn cart were killed in Niger on Thursday when they ran over a mine thought to have been planted by the Islamist insurgents.