KANO, Nigeria: Fifteen people were injured when two female suicide bombers targetted the edge of a military barracks in northeast Nigeria, police said on Thursday.
Soldiers shot dead one woman as she tried to get into the informal market at the base of 333 Artillery Nigerian Army in Maiduguri on Wednesday evening.
Borno state police spokesman Edet Okon said the woman’s explosives detonated when she was shot. A second bomber blew herself up in a nearby motorized rickshaw, he added.
“As a result of the explosions, the two bombers died instantly while 15 persons were injured and were rushed to the hospital for treatment,” he said in a statement.
A bomb disposal team had “sanitised” the area, he added.
Emergency services in the city said they had no further information on the blast, which came just days after nine soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack north of Maiduguri.
Markets on the fringes of military barracks typically sell basic needs to soldiers, including food and alcohol, and are often frequented by troops as well as civilians.
Police said the blasts happened at 8:20 p.m. (1920 GMT) but AFP has been told it occurred about 30 minutes before the night-time curfew in Maiduguri at 10:00 pm.
Suicide bombers, many of them women and young girls, have previously targeted security checkpoints, as well as markets, mosques and camps for those displaced by the insurgency.
On Saturday, suicide bombers killed 43 in Damboa, southwest of Maiduguri, which has raised fresh questions about security for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the remote region.
The government, which maintains Boko Haram is on the verge of defeat, wants IDPs to return home.
Suicide bombers target military market in NE Nigeria
Suicide bombers target military market in NE Nigeria
- As a result of the explosions, the two bombers died instantly while 15 persons were injured and were rushed to the hospital for treatment
- Markets on the fringes of military barracks typically sell basic needs to soldiers, including food and alcohol, and are often frequented by troops as well as civilians
Denmark to expel non-Danes if jailed for one year or more
- “We prefer to protect our countries rather than protect offenders,” Frederiksen said
- The government plans to boost incentives for voluntary returns
COPENHAGEN: Denmark will expel non-Danish citizens who have served prison terms of a year or more for serious crimes, part of new measures to tighten immigration policy, the government announced Friday.
“Foreign offenders sentenced to at least one year in prison for serious crimes, such as aggravated assault and rape, should, in principle, be expelled,” the immigration ministry said in a statement.
Under current regulations, expulsions are not automatic, as Denmark complies with international conventions protecting the right to private and family life and forbidding inhumane treatment.
The Scandinavian country has, together with Britain, recently called on Europe to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which safeguards fundamental freedoms.
“It is right and necessary for European countries to sit around a table and say that we prefer to protect our countries rather than protect offenders,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told journalists.
“When international rules were drafted, I don’t think anyone imagined that someone would flee the Middle East to come to the best country in the world and start raping girls and women,” she said.
“At the time, it was absolutely not imagined that the victim would become the perpetrator. And I can assure you that, unfortunately, many of them have,” she said.
According to statistics from the immigration ministry, around 70 percent of foreign nationals sentenced to prison terms of one year or more for serious crimes have been expelled.
In addition, the government — which insisted that “refugees must be in Denmark on a temporary basis” — plans to boost incentives for voluntary returns and to tighten rules for foreigners in departure centers.
Denmark also said Friday it would reopen its embassy in Syria and establish cooperation with Afghanistan.
In the departure centers, some foreigners who fail to comply with their reporting requirements will be required to wear electronic ankle tags.
The reforms are expected to take effect on May 1.
