A quiet evening in Konduga, a town roughly 30 kilometers from Maiduguri in Nigeria’s troubled Borno State, turned into chaos late Friday when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive inside a local restaurant, killing at least 10 people and injuring several more.
Confirming the incident on Saturday, police spokesperson Nahum Daso told The Associated Press that the explosion took place during a heavy downpour, a factor believed to have helped the assailant slip past security unnoticed.
“The suicide bomber was able to slip through unnoticed because of a heavy downpour,” said Ismail Ahmed, a resident of Konduga, recounting the tragic moment.
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Local media have reported that the attacker was a female, and that the wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital for urgent treatment.
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Although no group has claimed responsibility, suspicion has quickly turned toward Boko Haram or its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), both of which have repeatedly targeted civilian areas in the region.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, originally under the banner of opposing Western education and seeking to establish a hardline Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. Over the years, the conflict has extended beyond Nigeria’s borders and left a grim toll: more than 35,000 people dead and over 2 million displaced, according to United Nations figures.
Despite renewed promises by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to tackle Nigeria’s persistent security threats, attacks in the northeast continue, keeping millions of Nigerians in a state of fear and displacement.
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