KANO, Nigeria - Two blasts rocked northeast Nigeria on Thursday, killing at least six, after new President Muhammadu Buhari urged closer regional cooperation to defeat Boko Haram.
The first explosion happened in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, which has been hit by a spate of bombings in recent days, when a truck carrying firewood rammed into a checkpoint outside a military barracks.
The second hit a busy market in Yola, the capital of neighbouring Adamawa state.
At least four soldiers were killed in the first explosion, which one resident called a "suicide attack", while the second left two dead and some 30 others injured, police and locals said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but both incidents will likely be blamed on Boko Haram, whose insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state has left at least 15,000 people dead since 2009.
The Islamists had been seen as a weakened force in recent months, as a result of a four-nation military offensive involving Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon that pushed them out of captured territory.
But recent days have seen a marked increase in attacks against so-called "soft" targets, including markets and mosques.
The group this week also released a new video -- its first for several months and first under the banner of the "Islamic State in West Africa" -- claiming it was still to be reckoned with.
The bombings also coincide with the arrival of Buhari as head of state. In his inaugural speech last Friday, he described the group as "mindless" and "godless" and made crushing the rebellion his top priority.
AFP
