In Nigeria, twenty-six dead in the explosion of a truck that rolled on a mine

At least twenty-six people were killed on Monday, April 28, when a truck rolled on an artisanal mine placed along a road in the state of Borno, in northeast Nigeria, where jihadist attacks are experiencing a recent resurgence.

“Twenty-six people were killed in the explosion, including sixteen men, four women and six children”said a military officer, who wanted to remain anonymous because he was not allowed to speak on the incident. The mine had been placed along a road in the village of Furununda, near the city of Rann, said the officer and a resident. The truck had left Rann in the morning and headed for the city of Gamboru, thirty kilometers away, when it hit the mine eleven kilometers from the departure, according to the military officer.

The state of Borno is the cradle and the bastion of the organization Boko Haram, whose jihadist insurrection has left more than 40,000 dead and two million inappropriates in this region of the most populous country in Africa for fifteen,000 years.

“Unrecognizable” bodies

“I participated in the funeral of the twenty-six people killed in the explosion, most of them were burned to the point of being unrecognizable”said Akram Saad, a resident of Rann. A video seen by a journalist from the France-Presse agency (AFP) showed rows of bodies in white plastic bags placed on the ground of the Rann General Hospital, before being buried. A doctor from the Rann General Hospital confirmed that twenty-six bodies had been transported to the hospital, most of them “Unrecognizable” Following the explosion.

Rann, 175 kilometers from the Maiduguri regional capital, is home to a camp which welcomes more than 50,000 people from the surrounding villages, moved by years of jihadist raids. The displaced people go to the commercial city of Gamboru every week to buy food.

Rann drew the attention of the world in 2018 after Islamic State jihadists in West Africa (ISWAP) attacked a United Nations center in the displacement camp, killing three humanitarian workers and taking three Nigerians working for Unicef ​​and the Red Cross International Committee (CICR). Two of the hostages were executed, while the third escaped after six years of captivity.

Intensification of attacks

This new mine attack was not claimed, but Boko Haram and its rival, the ISWAP, have intensified their actions in recent weeks in the northeast of the country.

On Saturday, jihadists from Boko Haram killed at least ten members of a group of self -defense by patrol in the village of Kopre, in the State of Adamawa, near the border with the State of Borno. Last week, Boko Haram killed fourteen farmers outside the village of Pulka, in the Gwoza district, in the state of Borno. In mid-April, eight people were killed and 21 injured when a bus touched a mine on the road connecting the capital of the State of Borno, Maiduguri, and the city of Damboa. At the end of March, twenty Cameroonian soldiers were killed in an attack perpetrated by Boko Haram, in northeast Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon.

The jihadist conflict has extended to Chad, Niger and Neighboring Cameroon, pushing a regional military force to fight militants, but the tense relations between Nigeria and its neighbors, in particular Niger, hinder the effectiveness of the military coalition and compromise its chances of success in the fight against jihadism.