Explosion at Nigerian mosque leaves 5 dead and 35 injured in apparent suicide attack

A bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Wednesday night, killing five people in what police described as a probable suicide attack.

Police said 35 people were also injured in the attack.

Nahum Daso, spokesman for the police command in the surrounding Borno state, said in a statement that fragments of a suspected suicide vest were found at the scene.

Borno state governor Babagana Zulum condemned the attack, calling it “barbaric and inhumane”, Reuters news agency reports. In a statement, it urged increased surveillance in places of worship and public spaces during the holiday season.

The attack is the latest in a series of attacks in Nigeria’s restive northern region, where the country is fighting multiple armed groups, including Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province.

According to the United Nations, several thousand people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes since 2009.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but the use of suicide bombers has largely been attributed to Boko Haram, the Islamic militant group that has claimed responsibility for many such attacks in the northeastern region.

Analysts say the group’s use of suicide bombers has declined in recent years, but it still has the ability to launch such attacks. In July 2024, a three-pronged suicide attack on a wedding ceremony in Borno raised the specter of further use of the method by the group.