Nigeria: Suicide bomb at state offices kills 7 in northeast

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – A suicide bomber pretending to be a madman blew himself up Thursday, killing seven people including two police officers who stopped him entering a bustling complex of government offices in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, officials said.

Eighteen people were wounded, officials said.

“A policeman was torn beyond recognition,” said Satomi Ahmed, chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency. The second officer succumbed to his wounds later, said army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

Government worker Hamidu Bukar said he escaped because his cellphone rang as he neared the entrance and he stopped to answer it. “God! I count myself lucky to be alive today,” he told the AP. “A loud blast threw me off my feet and everywhere around me was littered with body parts.”

Officials blamed the incident on Boko Haram Islamic extremists who have killed hundreds this year.

Thursday’s blast comes the day after worshippers prevented a suicide bomber from entering a mosque in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and headquarters of the military’s campaign against the jihadists. The military said the bomber blew himself up and wounded four people.

The two bombings this week are the first attacks in two months, indicating the success of heightened vigilance by soldiers and self-defence groups that have reported intercepting several suicide bombers recently.

The decrease in attacks, which were an almost daily occurrence earlier this year, also marks the success of a military campaign that officers say has Boko Haram hemmed into strongholds in the Sambisa Forest, a sprawling game reserve 45 minutes’ drive southwest of Maiduguri.

Dozens of Boko Haram fighters are surrendering, reporting food and ammunition shortages, the military said this week.

Some 20,000 people have died and 2.1 million become refugees in Boko Haram’s nearly 7-year uprising to create an Islamic state.