Suicide bombings | Nigeria plunges back into Boko Haram’s darkest hours

(Maiduguri) Abubakar Buba was attending a wedding Saturday afternoon in the town of Gwoza, in northeastern Nigeria near the Cameroonian border when a “woman holding two children by the hand entered.” Then there was an explosion.

Wounded in the suicide attack, he was transported like other victims to hospital in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, about three hours’ drive from Gwoza.

In the same hospital, Aishatu Usman watches over her son, still unconscious since the suicide bombing that struck the wedding ceremony. “I pray to God that my son heals quickly and that the perpetrators of this horrible crime come back to the right path,” she told AFP.

Gwoza, a city of nearly 400,000 inhabitants, was the scene of four almost simultaneous suicide attacks on Saturday, including at least three carried out by female suicide bombers, which left “at least 18 dead” and around forty injured according to local emergency services.

The attacks, which have not yet been claimed, were a painful reminder to residents that the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram still poses a real threat.

Deeply rooted in this region of Nigeria bordering Cameroon, Boko Haram is known for having used female suicide bombers in its armed struggle to establish a caliphate in northeastern Nigeria against soft targets such as markets, schools, mosques, churches and large gatherings of civilians.

Suicide attacks have been rare in Nigeria recently, with jihadist fighters using other methods of action (kidnappings, killings, looting, etc.).

“Age of Fear”

Very anchored in this region of Nigeria bordering Cameroon, Boko Haram seized Gwoza in 2014 and declared it a caliphate after seizing part of Borno State.

The town was retaken by the Nigerian army with the help of Chadian forces in 2015, but the jihadist group continues to launch attacks from the mountains overlooking the town on the border with Cameroon.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “strongly condemned suicide attacks” in a statement on Sunday, seeing it as “a clear manifestation of pressure against terrorists and the success recorded in weakening their attack capabilities”.

“These cowardly attacks are just an isolated episode,” added the head of state, who assured that he “will not allow the nation to enter an era of fear, tears, sorrow and blood.”

Having come to power a year ago, Mr. Tinubu made the fight against insecurity a priority of his mandate but the results are still awaited.

The United Nations also condemned the attacks in a statement on Sunday and “offered all necessary support” to the Borno authorities.

” 2014 ”

A first attack took place on Saturday during the wedding ceremony, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives among the guests.

While funeral prayers for the victims of this attack were in progress, another female suicide bomber “rushed and detonated another device which caused numerous victims,” said a local emergency services official on Saturday evening. (SEMA), Barkindo Saidu.

A few minutes later, an explosion “of another device by a teenage girl” took place around the city’s general hospital, Mr. Saidu added.

A member of the anti-jihadist militia assisting the army in Gwoza told AFP that a fourth suicide attack had targeted a security post, killing three people including a soldier. This toll has not yet been confirmed by an official source.

“It takes me back to 2014 when Gwoza was occupied by these terrorist groups,” Baba Shehu Saidu told AFP at Maiduguri hospital after losing five members of his family in one of the attacks on Saturday.

“The situation is calm,” Fatima Musa, secretary of the local government of Gwoza, told AFP on Sunday morning, adding that the army is deployed in the town but that “people will continue to be afraid”.

Jihadist violence, which has lasted 15 years, has left more than 40,000 dead and displaced around two million in the northeast of the country.

Insecurity remains very high even though Boko Haram has lost ground in recent years, particularly due to its competition with the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) born from a split from Boko Haram.

Jihadist fighters continue to regularly attack Nigeria’s rural communities, killing men and kidnapping women who venture out of town in search of firewood.