The Islamist militant group Boko Haram burnt down a newly renovated hospital and several houses in Adamawa State, northeast Nigeria, on Tuesday night, a local government official said according to bloomberg.com.
No one died in the attack after residents fled their houses when they noticed the attackers approaching, chairman of Madagali local government area Yusuf Mohammed said by phone on Wednesday.
A vigilante group and mobile police unit set up to fight the insurgency responded quickly and repulsed the attackers, thereby minimizing the damage, Mohammed said.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed on Monday to step up the fight against the militants and proponents of secession in his first speech after returning from three months of sick leave in London. The militia group has killed tens of thousands of people and threatened parts of the northeast with famine, and secessionist agitation by ethnic Igbos and tensions between them and the northern Hausa people are intensifying.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber with an improvised explosive device strapped to his body died Wednesday as he approached a patrol team at Muna garage area in Borno state, the region’s police spokesman Murtala Ibrahim said in an emailed statement. One civilian was also killed in the explosion, while seven others and four security personnel were injured, he said.
“Casualties were rushed to University of Maiduguri Teaching hospital and are responding to treatment,” Ibrahim said. “Normalcy has been restored.”
