Nigeria’s Defence spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade has given an account of how Boko Haram militants made a futile bid to storm Maiduguri, capital of the northeast state of Borno on Wednesday night.
He said the insurgents began their attack on the outskirts of Maiduguri with the detonation of two female suicide bombers in Ladi Kayamla area.
He also said the attack was likely intended as a diversion to “slow down the ongoing assault on the Sambisa forest, it was carried out by those insurgents escaping from locations that have been destroyed”.
At least six civilians and six members of a youth vigilante group were killed, the Reuters news agency quoted military sources as saying.
One of the sources said the vigilantes in the so-called civilian joint taskforce died after they mistook female suicide bombers for residents fleeing the Boko Haram raid.
Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in its attempt to carve out an Islamist state in the country’s northeast, is on the backfoot foot following a co-ordinated offensive by military forces from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
However, Wednesday’s assault shows it is still capable of pulling off bloody assaults.
The army has meanwhile imposed a 24 hour curfew on Maiduguri following the attack.