At least five people were killed and 35 others injured when a bomb exploded inside a crowded mosque during evening prayers in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno State, police said. The blast occurred in the Gamboru market area of the city, according to Borno State police spokesperson Nahum Daso, who told local media that the incident is suspected to be a suicide attack. Unverified videos circulating on social media showed dust-filled scenes, and people gathered at the site shortly after the explosion.
“Preliminary investigations further suggest that the incident may have been a suicide bombing, based on the recovery of fragments of a suspected suicide vest and witness statements recorded, while investigations are ongoing to establish the exact cause and circumstances,” Daso said in a statement. He added that security operatives were combing the area for possible secondary explosive devices.
Accounts of casualties varied. A mosque leader, Malam Abuna Yusuf, told AFP that at least eight people were killed, while a militia leader, Babakura Kolo, put the death toll at seven. Another witness, Musa Yusha’u, said he saw “many victims being taken away for medical treatment.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but militants in the region have frequently targeted mosques and crowded public places using suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices. Maiduguri has long been at the centre of an insurgency led by Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The conflict in north-east Nigeria, which began in 2009 with Boko Haram’s campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced about two million, according to the United Nations. Although violence has declined from its peak a decade ago and Maiduguri has been relatively calm since a major attack in 2021, security analysts warn that armed groups remain capable of carrying out deadly assaults across the region and neighbouring countries.