Nigeria Mosque Blast: An explosion tore through a mosque during evening prayers on Wednesday in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria Borno state, news agency Reuters reported citing witness said. However, several media reported killing of at least seven people.
The blast occurred in a city that has been at the heart of an Islamist insurgency waged by Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for nearly two decades which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions across the northeast.
“Preliminary investigations further suggest that the incident may have been a suicide bombing, based on the recovery of fragments of a suspected suicide vest and witness statements recorded, while investigations are ongoing to establish the exact cause and circumstances,” Nahum Daso, spokesperson for Borno state police command, said in the statement.
No group claims responsibility
No group has claimed responsibility, but militants have previously targeted mosques and crowded places in Maiduguri in suicide bombings and improvised explosive device attacks. Boko Haram launched its uprising in Borno state in 2009, seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate. Despite military offensives and regional cooperation, sporadic attacks continue to threaten civilians in the northeast.
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Boko Haram in Nigeria
Earlier in 2014, more than 100 people were killed in coordinated attack on the central mosque of north Nigeria's biggest city of Kano and 135 people were wounded. Gunmen set off three bombs and opened fire on worshippers at the main mosque in Kano in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, although the attack has not yet been claimed.
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Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria with disdain.
The targeted mosque is next to the palace of the emir of Kano, who is the second highest Islamic authority in Africa's most populous country and a vocal critic of Boko Haram.
In a bloody campaign of nearly six years the group has also targeted churches, schools, police stations, military bases and government buildings.
(With inputs from agency)