26 killed in Nigeria as truck drove over explosive device

ABUJA, Nigeria

At least 26 people were killed on Monday, April 28, when a truck drove over a roadside bomb in northeast Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, a military source and a local resident told our reporter.

The attack happened in Borno state which has been a hotbed of the Boko Haram jihadist uprising in Nigeria. More than 40,000 people have died there in the past 15 years of conflict.

"Twenty-six people died in the blast, comprising 16 men, four women and six children," said a military officer speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the incident.

Three passengers were severely injured, said the officer. "I took part in the funeral of the 26 people killed in the explosion, most of them were burnt beyond recognition," Akram Saad, a resident of the nearby town Rann, said.

A medic at the Rann general hospital said 26 bodies were taken to the hospital, most of them "unrecognizable" from the explosion.

Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) launch sporadic ambushes on convoys and plant landmines along highways in northern Borno.

It was not clear which jihadist group was behind the mine blast although ISWAP is active in the area.

The jihadist groups have intensified attacks in recent weeks, with more than two dozen killed in two attacks at the weekend.

Rann, 175 kilometers from the regional capital Maiduguri, has a camp housing more than 50,000 people from surrounding villages displaced by years of jihadist raids.

The displaced make weekly trips to the commercial town of Gamboru to buy supplies.

Rann received global attention in 2018 when ISWAP jihadists raided a United Nations hub in the camp, killing three humanitarian staff and abducting three local women health staff working for international aid agencies.

Two of the hostages were executed while the third escaped after six years in captivity. Since the 2009 insurgency began, conflict has spread into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, prompting a regional military force to fight the militants.