Boko Haram kills 5 in northern Nigerian city

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram killed five people in two separate attacks in the northeastern city of Gombe on Sunday, witnesses said.

One of the attacks, by a suspected suicide bomber, targeted a military checkpoint in Kasuwar Katako area of the northern state, while the other targeted a local market called Tsohuwar Kasuwa, a witness named Musa Ilela said.

According to him, the cause of the market explosion was unknown but local people suspected it was a perpetration of Boko Haram which had earlier on Sunday carried out similar attacks in the northeastern Borno and Yobe states respectively.

Three people, including a soldier, died in the suicide bomb attack at the military checkpoint, while two people died at the market explosion, said another witness named Ibrahim Bello.

Local officials were yet to issue any statement on the incidents, as of the time of filing this report.

Boko Haram, which seeks to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law in the constitution of Nigeria, has posed a serious regional security threat.

More than 13,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million made homeless in violence related to the insurgent group since 2009. Enditem