An attack by Boko Haram jihadists on the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri killed 14 people and wounded 24 others, police said on Thursday, the first official toll.
Maiduguri is the epicenter of the eight-year fight against Boko Haram which has been trying to set up an Islamic State in the northeast, and has been largely free of violence for the past two years.
The fighters attacked the city’s suburbs on Wednesday night with anti-aircraft guns and several suicide bombers, said Damian Chukwu, the commissioner of Police, Borno State, of which Maiduguri is the capital.
“A total of 13 people were killed in the multiple explosions with 24 persons injured while one person died in the attack (shooting),” he told reporters.
Several buildings were set on fire but the military repulsed the fighters after an hour, he said.
Aid workers and witnesses reported that the explosions and heavy gunfire lasted for at least 45 minutes in the north eastern part of the country.
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