Deadly blast in Nigerian beer garden

At least five killed in bombing near police barracks in northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Nigeria Police Bomb blast
undefined

At least five people have been killed in a bomb blast at a police beer garden in the troubled northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a military source and a witness said.

Sunday evening’s blast took place in the middle of a ‘mammy market’ near the police barracks in the Wulari area of the city.

Mammy markets are open-air pubs and eateries found around police or military barracks and are open to both security personnel and civilians.

Jack Nwachukwu Nwaogbo, a major-general in the Nigerian army, said the explosion killed at least five people and wounded 10.

Umar Kaulaha, a resident in the area said he had heard a “loud bang followed by dark clouds of smoke from the beer garden”.

Maj-Gen Nwaogbo said three fighters from the Boko Haram group also shot and killed four people in Maiduguri late on Saturday. Nwaogbo said a fifth person was shot dead on Sunday.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility, in an unverified statement, for a June 16 bombing in Abuja. A separate blast killed 25 people in Maiduguri on June 27.

The group was behind a series of killings which have targeted police officers, soldiers, politicians and clerics in Nigeria’s north over the last year – including attacks on beer parlours. They have also attacked churches and engineered a massive prison break.

The group wants strict Shariah or Islamic law implemented across the region.

Source: News Agencies