AT least 19 people were killed after an Improvised Explosive Device(IED) suspected to be planted by Boko Haram insurgents went off at a local eatery in Kawuri village, Konduga Local government area of Borno State, on Wednesday.
The incident happened three days after insurgents attacked a police station at Jakana town in the same Konduga LGA.
A policeman and one woman were killed in that attack while two patrol vans set ablaze.
A government official from the village said the bomb went off around 8:05pm at a local tea joint where the villagers gathered for a night chat, adding that dozens of people also got injured.
“Nobody can say exactly how it happened, but we suspected that the bomb was planted, not a suicide attack.
“We saw corpses of 19 people with unspecified number of civilians injured. The injured were evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Maiduguri for treatment,” the souce said on condition of anonymity.
Kawuri community is located around 50 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state capital.
The incident occcured 24 hours after an Accountant working with Local Education Authority in Damboa Local Government Area, Shettima Mustapha, was killed when his vehicle ran into an IED along Maiduguri -Damboa-Biu highway in Borno.
Efforts to contact the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Daso, was not successful, as his phone couldn’t be reached as at the time of filing this report.
The incident comes on the eve of the planned nationwide protest, which the government has repeatedly said could be hijacked by hoodlums and terrorists.
