Suicide bomber kills five outside Borno mosque

A suicide bomber targeting worshippers at a mosque in Konduga village, Borno state killed five people and injured scores, a security source said on Saturday.

The source, who declined to be named, said Muslims were observing Friday prayers when the pick-up truck approached.

A local vigilante group stopped the truck to inspect it and the bomber then detonated the bomb a few metres from the mosque, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Boko Haram was likely to be the prime suspect.

Witness Mohammadu Sheriff said he had seen the vigilantes conducting checks on a pick-up van carrying firewood.

“Suddenly it exploded,” he told Reuters by phone. “It would have been more devastating if the bomber had succeeded in driving near the mosque, which had over a thousand people in it.”

Boko Haram have become by far the biggest security threat to Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country, largest economy and leading energy producer.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram from the village of Chibok in April made world headlines. Despite pledges of Western support and promises by President Goodluck Jonathan to free them, they remain in captivity.

A spate of bombings across the north and centre of Nigeria in the past three months has also demonstrated the rebels’ ability to strike outside of their northeastern stronghold.