Two killed in landmine blast in Nigeria

Kano, Nigeria | AFP | Two people were killed when a convoy of civilian vehicles hit landmines in northeast Nigeria, a driver and a local militia member said on Wednesday.

Babakura Kolo, from the Civilian Joint Task Force helping the military with security, said the blasts happened at Koibe village on the Mafa to Dikwa road in Borno state.

“In the first incident which occurred around 12:00 pm (1100 GMT) a car carrying five people hit a mine. Two people died and three others sustained injuries,” he told AFP.

“Three minutes later a truck carrying passengers hit another explosive, resulting in the several injuries among the passengers. It is not clear how many people were wounded.”

A driver who gave his name only as Umar corroborated the account.

The vehicles were under military escort and heading from the Borno state capital to Dikwa 90 kilometres (50 miles) away at the time.

Nigeria’s military has said roads are reopened to traffic in and out of Maiduguri but many routes still require escorts because of the risk of Boko Haram attack in rural areas.

At least 69 people were killed in an ambush of an oil exploration team in the Magumeri area of Borno, 50 km northwest of Maiduguri, in July.

In June, at least three loggers were killed when their truck ran over a landmine outside Abbari village in the Konduga district of Borno.

Two men, one of them a police officer, were killed in an attack on a convoy near Dalwa West village, on the road to Damboa, southwest of Maiduguri.

Nigeria maintains the war against Boko Haram is nearly over after eight years, at least 20,000 deaths and more than 2.6 million made homeless.

But sporadic attacks continue: a female suicide bomber killed five when she detonated her explosives at a mosque in Dikwa on Tuesday morning.

The military has also warned that the jihadists laid landmines on stretches of roads and farmlands as they were pushed out of captured territory.