At least five people were killed and more than a dozen injured on Thursday after several explosions near an air force base in Nigeria’s Maiduguri town, ahead of a visit by President Muhammadu Buhari, residents and a hospital source said.<\/p>\n
Maiduguri is the capital of the northeast state of Borno, the epicenter of a 12-year Islamist insurgency. The city and surrounding areas are routinely attacked by militants.<\/p>\n
Four people were killed in Maiduguri’s Gomari Ayafe area, a few hundred metres from an air force base, residents said. Buhari landed at the base less than an hour after explosions were heard in neighbourhoods near the base.<\/p>\n
A Reuters witness saw two bodies, including that of a child and several injured people being taken to hospital in open trucks. Three houses were extensively damaged and residents suspected Islamist militants.<\/p>\n
“We have received four dead people and 15 others injured that we have recorded,” a doctor at Umaru Shehu Hospital, where the injured were taken, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Hussaini Garba, a resident of Ajilari Cross, another Maiduguri neighbourhood, a few kilometres from the air base said he had just left home for work when he heard a loud bang. He rushed home only to find his house badly damaged and his 18-year-old daughter lying dead.<\/p>\n
“My house and that of my neighbours are both destroyed, nothing is left in the house,” Garba said.<\/p>\n
The military and presidency declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Buhari did not comment on the explosions during his visit to Maiduguri to commission some projects, including a road bypass.<\/p>\n
However, he told troops at the air base that his government was working towards “the defeat of all adversaries and restoration of an economically viable north east geo-political zone and other parts of the country where Nigerians are free to go about their activities without fear or harassment.”<\/p>\n
Nigeria is gripped by persistent insecurity, including the Islamist insurgency in the northeast and banditry and kidnappings in the north and northwest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least five people were killed and more than a dozen injured on Thursday after several explosions near an air force base in Nigeria’s Maiduguri town, ahead of a visit by President Muhammadu Buhari, residents and a hospital source said. Maiduguri is the capital of the northeast state of Borno, the epicenter of a 12-year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2089,2088,484,185,2087],"class_list":{"0":"post-234767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-air-base","9":"tag-explosions","10":"tag-killed","11":"tag-nigeria","12":"tag-nigerian-president"},"yoast_head":"\n