ABUJA – At least 26 people were killed and three others injured in an explosive device explosion Tuesday as their truck was passing on the side of a road in northeastern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon.
Nigerian independent daily The Guardian quoted a military source and a local resident as saying, “26 people were killed in the explosion, including 16 men, four women and six children, and three passengers were seriously injured.”
Akram Saad, a resident of the neighboring town of Ran, said, “I participated in the funeral of 26 people who were killed in the explosion, and most of them were burned beyond recognition,” the paper said.
It is not yet clear which group was behind the mine explosion, although Daesh in West Africa is active in the region, while Boko Haram and Daesh launch sporadic ambushes on convoys and plant landmines along the highways in northern Borno, where the attack occurred, it added.
Borno State is a stronghold of the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in Nigeria, where more than 40,000 people have died there during the past 15 years of conflict.
