Boko Haram fighters staged gun and suicide attacks on a military camp outside a university in Nigeria’s troubled north, the emergency services said on Monday, prompting students to flee.
(AFP) The jihadists attacked the camp outlying the perimeter wall of the University of Maiduguri around 2030 GMT Sunday, forcing troops to withdraw before a bomber detonated his explosives.
Maiduguri is the birthplace of the Boko Haram movement and has been repeatedly attacked by the group.
“We evacuated the remains of a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside the lodging used by soldiers guarding the rear parameter of the university,” said Bello Dambatta, the chief security officer for Borno state emergency services.
“Luckily no soldier was hurt in the attack as there were no troops inside the building at the time,” Danbatta told AFP.
The fighters had waded through deep trenches dug around the university fence to stave off Boko Haram incursions.
“Everybody ran out of the hostels, thinking the university was under attack because the sounds and explosion were very close,” said student Rebecca Simon. She said the students only returned to their hostels after the sounds of gunfire stopped.
Boko Haram, which opposes Western education, is notorious for attacking public schools as well as mosques, motor parks, and markets.
An IS-affiliated faction of the jihadist group, however, focuses on military targets.
In February last year, the insurgents carried out a botched suicide attack on the Maiduguri campus which killed the bomber.
The conflict has killed 35,000 people and displaced some two million others in Nigeria in the last decade.
The violence has spilled into neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting the creation of a regional military coalition to fight the jihadists
