MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 18 people in northeast Nigeria on Friday, according to local witnesses and officials, the latest in an escalating number of lethal attacks in the region.
The knife-wielding attackers, moving under cover of night, targeted people in the town of Banki, 80 miles (130 km) southeast of the city of Maiduguri in Borno state, the epicenter of the eight-year conflict with Boko Haram, said a community leader and a local member of a vigilante group.
The attack on the town, which sits on the border with Cameroon, is the latest in a string of deadly Boko Haram raids and bombings that have undermined the Nigerian military’s statements that the insurgency is all but defeated.
The frequency of attacks in northeastern Nigeria has increased in the last few months, killing at least 172 people since June 1 before Friday’s attack, according to a Reuters tally.
The attack on Banki left 18 dead, according to Modu Perobe, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a regional vigilante group. Abor Ali, a local ruler, confirmed the death toll.
Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 dead and sparked one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with tens of thousands already in famine-like conditions, according to the United Nations.
Some 8.5 million people in the worst affected parts of northeast Nigeria are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, with 5.2 million people lacking secure access to food, the UN has said.
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Suspected Boko Haram members kill 18 people in northeast Nigeria
Suspected Boko Haram members kill 18 people in northeast Nigeria
Nigeria police detain driver in fatal Joshua car crash
LAGOS: The driver of a car carrying British boxer Anthony Joshua that was involved in a fatal crash in Nigeria has been held in police custody after he was discharged from hospital, a police spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
The man was driving Joshua and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in southwest Nigeria when the Lexus SUV in which they were traveling rammed into a stationary truck on Monday.
Nigerian police and state officials said that Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene, while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.
“The driver... is currently in custody in connection with the Anthony Joshua accident,” Oluseyi Babaseyi, spokesman for the police in Ogun state, told AFP. “Investigations are ongoing.”
When asked if the driver was facing prosecution, Babaseyi replied that the “investigation remains discreet for now.”
Preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tire before the crash, the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week.
After leaving the hospital on Wednesday, Joshua and his mother paid their respects at the funeral home where the bodies of his friends were being prepared for repatriation.
A government source suggested to AFP on Thursday that the remains of the victims may have been repatriated to the United Kingdom, Joshua’s whereabouts are unknown.
The man was driving Joshua and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in southwest Nigeria when the Lexus SUV in which they were traveling rammed into a stationary truck on Monday.
Nigerian police and state officials said that Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene, while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.
“The driver... is currently in custody in connection with the Anthony Joshua accident,” Oluseyi Babaseyi, spokesman for the police in Ogun state, told AFP. “Investigations are ongoing.”
When asked if the driver was facing prosecution, Babaseyi replied that the “investigation remains discreet for now.”
Preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tire before the crash, the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week.
After leaving the hospital on Wednesday, Joshua and his mother paid their respects at the funeral home where the bodies of his friends were being prepared for repatriation.
A government source suggested to AFP on Thursday that the remains of the victims may have been repatriated to the United Kingdom, Joshua’s whereabouts are unknown.
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