The Islamists’ assault on the Borno state capital saw rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) fired into homes, said witnesses and security sources. It came after Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration, where he promised a new command-and-control centre to better coordinate the counter-insurgency effort in the region.
Shortly after midnight on Friday, residents in the Dala suburb south of the city woke to the sound of RPGs being fired in succession, said resident Modu Karumi, in an account supported by several others.
Witnesses said hundreds of Islamist gunmen were trying to advance on the city, which is now home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by unrest in other parts of Borno state.
A military source said the shooting took place around the Damboa road near the small settlement of Mule, about six miles (10km) from Maiduguri, a city of 2 million people.
“A rocket launcher from Boko Haram hit a house around the Bulumkutu area … and killed five people. Our boys also picked up six corpses in different locations,” local militia member Mohammed Bunu said, adding that the militants tried to cross trenches dug around the city.
The attack follows twin bomb blasts early on Friday in Tashan Alade, a remote Borno town, which killed at least seven people.
Thousands have been killed and about 1.5 million displaced during Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency to carve out a state adhering to strict Islamic law in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and top oil producer.
At the start of the year it controlled a swath of territory larger than Belgium in the north-east of the country. The group has since been pushed back with the help of offensives launched by troops from Chad and Niger while Cameroon has fought off militants along its borders.
