Boko Haram Islamic extremists killed at least 80 people in attacks at a city and a town in northeastern Nigeria with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers Monday, witnesses said, according to Fox News.
The strikes began with overnight blasts and shootouts in the capital of the Borna State, Maiduguri, killing at least 30 and wounding more than 90. A bombing outside a mosque at dawn killed another 20, said Muhammed Kanar, area coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency.
Southeast 150 kilometers in Madagali, a twin suicide bombing killed at least 30 people after two women blew themselves up at a market near a busy bus station, witnesses said, according to Fox News.
Just outside Maiduguri, in the village of Darwari, militants began firing from the back of three trucks as a woman ran through the area yelling "Boko Haram, Boko Haram" before detonating herself among a gathered crowd.
With President Muhammadu Buhari's declaration last week that Nigerian security forces have "technically won the war" against Boko Haram, the attacks appear to challenge this notion and that it's now capable of more than suicide bombings on soft targets, according to ABC News.
Borno State's governor, Kashim Shettima, urged residents to be resilient.
"Our head is bloody but remains unbowed," he said at a news conference at the State Specialist Hospital after visiting the injured. "They will not deter us; we will continue to preach for peace, dialogue, tolerance and understanding. But these lunatics, by the grace of God, their days are numbered. They can inflict pains on us certainly, but our spirit remains high," according to The New York Times.
Nigerian troops "intercepted and destroyed" 13 suicide bombers and arrested one female suicide bomber, acting on information provided by a captured insurgent, Maj. Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, the commander prosecuting Nigeria's war against Boko Haram, told reporters.
