Twin bomb explosions kill at least 8 in NE Nigeria

By Olarewaju Kola

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AA) - At least eight people have been killed by twin bomb explosions near a refugee camp and a gas station in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the military said.

A female suicide bomber in a rickshaw with two passengers targeting a moving fuel tanker suddenly exploded before entering a gas station in Maiduguri, Borno's provincial capital Saturday at about 7.05 a.m. (0605GMT), an army spokesman, Col. Mustapha Anka, said in a statement.

"The suicide bomber exploded killing the three occupants of the tricycle [rickshaw]. No reported injured persons at this instance," he said.

The second explosion occurred a few minutes later near a refugee camp for displaced Boko Haram victims, a kilometer from the scene of the first blast.

"At the Bakassi IDPs camp, a suspected female suicide bomber ran into a group of men and women at the entrance while they were coming out of the camp, killing five men and injuring 11 women," Anka added.

But spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sani Datti puts the casualty figure at nine. "Nine people were killed by the twin bomb blasts in Maiduguri on Saturday morning while 24 persons were injured," he said in a statement.

The Saturday bomb explosions came barely two weeks after a suicide bomber in a cab rammed into a convoy of vehicles transporting returning internally displaced persons( IDPs) to their liberated communities, killing five people.