Five people killed, six injured in Boko Haram suicide attack in village in northeastern Nigeria, say residents

Kano: At least five people were killed and six others injured during a night time Boko Haram raid and suicide attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, residents told AFP on Saturday. A male suicide bomber detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in open in the Tungushe village in Borno state at about 12.15 am (23.15 GMT Friday). [caption id=“attachment_4528701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Boko Haram militants. Reuters[/caption] The blast was followed by indiscriminate gunfire from Boko Haram jihadists lurking in the dark, said Mustapha Muhammad, a civilian militia leader in the area. “Five people have been killed and six others injured in the attack,” Muhammad said through a telephone from the village, which lies six kilometers north of the Borno state capital Maiduguri. Tungushe resident Umara Kyari, who gave similar casualty toll, said the attackers torched eight thatched houses and three vehicles before stealing about 100 cows. “Fortunately all the cows returned to the village,” said Kyari. “I think the attackers are not used to herding cows and could not control them." Boko Haram regularly uses suicide bombers, mostly women and young girls, to target mosques, schools, bus stations and military locations. Its nine-year armed violence to establish a hardline Islamic state in remote northeastern Nigeria has killed more than 20,000 people. Suicide attacks have increased in Borno state recently, prompting the military commander fighting the jihadists to offer a five-million-naira ($13,900) reward for information on bomb-making factories in the region. On 16 June, six young girls killed 43 people in suicide attacks in the town of Damboa, 80 kilometers outside Maiduguri. On Wednesday, 15 people were injured when two female suicide bombers targeted a market on the edge of a military base in the city.