At least ten people were killed and more than 35 injured after a bomb went off in a mosque in Nigeria’s northeastern Maiduguri during Wednesday night’s obligatory prayers, police officials said.
Borno state police spokesperson, Nahum Daso, said preliminary investigations indicate that the blast may have been a suicide attack.
“Based on the recovery of a fragment of a suspected suicide vest and eyewitness accounts, it appears highly likely that it’s a case of suicide bombing,” he said.
Daso confirmed that police were conducting a sweep of the area for possible secondary devices.
No group or organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the mosque attack, though a possible use of suicide bombers has been linked to Boko Haram, a militant group that has previously claimed responsibility for many such attacks across the northeastern region.
Security analysts believe the group’s use of suicide bombers has subsided in recent years; however, it remains capable of launching such attacks.
The Christmas Eve attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents in Nigeria’s northern part, where the country’s armed forces are facing multiple challenges from armed groups including Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province, among others.
According to UN estimates, thousands have died in violence-related episodes in this province of the country since 2009, with millions more having fled the troubled region.
Nigeria’s security forces are struggling to contain the surging violence in the country’s north, and have sought assistance from France for combat with criminal gangs and militant organisations operating in the country.
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