Suicide attacks on two predominantly Christian communities in northeast Nigeria on 27 and 29 January left at least 26 dead and dozens injured.
In Chibok, Borno state, suicide bombers, suspected to have been sent by Boko Haram, bombed a crowded market on 27 January, killing at least 17 civilians and a soldier and injuring at least 30 others. Following the government troop recovery of the town, the market had reopened that day for the first time since Boko Haram took over Chibok two years ago.
Crowded market
On 29 January, a suicide bomber suspected to have been sent by Boko Haram detonated explosives in a crowded market in Gombi, Adamawa state, killing at least eight people. Boko Haram, which seeks to impose shari’a law throughout Nigeria, has continued to carry out terrorist attacks since losing territory to the Nigerian military last year.
‘Some members of our church who escaped the attack in the market said they saw eight dead bodies, while about 28 others were injured’, the Revd Bitrus Njidda, pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) in the town, said.
Gombi was one of several Christian communities taken over by Boko Haram and many of the town’s displaced Christians are EYN members still living in camps for internally displaced people in other parts of the country, the pastor said. Though the Nigerian military has since reclaimed Gombi, many of these displaced Christians have refused to return to the town due to fear of terrorists.
