Black Sunday: Female suicide bomber kills 10, injures 31 others in Damaturu market

The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, said yesterday that it had succeeded in disrupting the Boko Haram sect’s communication supply line in the North eastern part of the country,

stating that efforts had been intensified to ensure that the war against insurgents comes to an end in six weeks.

 Female suicide bomber kills 10 in Damaturu

Meanwhile, Police in Yobe State have confirmed the killing of 10 people and 31 injured in a suicide attack that was carried out by a female suicide bomber. The attack took place at the Damaturu Central motor park near the A Division Police Station that was on January 9, 2015 burnt by the Boko Haram insurgents. The Police Public Relations Officer for Yobe State, Toyin Gbadegesin, disclosed that the bomber made several failed attempts to bomb the military outfit inside the park before she boarded a half-loaded Sharon car and blew off herself killing 10 people on the spot.

According to him, “at about 12.10 hours, a hijab wearing female suicide bomber came into the park and went to the security vehicle there and she was turned away after they suspected her movement. She then went to a commercial Sharon vehicle that was half loaded and detonated her explosives. “In the blast, 10 people died while 31 are critically injured and are lying at the General Sani Abatcha Hospital in Damaturu. We have condoned off the area and investigation is currently ongoing.”

The PPRO informed that the suicide bomber is about 21 years of age. A shop owner in the park, who requested anonymity, said an angry mob prevented rescue workers from evacuating the remains of the bomber. “They gathered the pieces (body parts) and set them on fire,” he said.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, disclosed this at the National Air Defence Corps, NADC, while flagging off a military operation exercise just as a female suicide bomber launched an attack at a motor park in Damaturu, Yobe State capital killing 10 persons while 31 others were injured.

Amosu declared that to meet the six weeks deadline onslaught against terrorists, as earlier declared by the Federal Government, the military had commenced special trainings for its personnel and platforms in Lagos for onward deployment to the northeast. He, therefore, revealed that during the training period, there would be sounds of gun shots as well as movement of military platform in Lagos, calling on Lagosians not to panic.

According to him, “we are set to decimate the Boko Haram terrorists by first gaining air and ground intelligence to deny them the freedom of action and movement, to destroy their communication and supply line and deny them the possibilities of regeneration. “We have done this sufficiently and their command and control is already disrupted and what we need to do now is an exercise to complete the project.

“It is so easy for people to say what you could not do in so many years, how come you are going to do in six weeks. It is an operation and it gets to a point where you can categorically say that within a period you can complete the operation and this is where we are right now. “As part of ongoing operations in the northeast, we needed to show up in Lagos to bring additional capabilities to the fight against insurgency. We are incorporating some new systems. Some new ammunition have shown up and we need to incorporate this into our existing platforms and intensify day and night operations.

“We need to let the citizens know that occasionally they will hear gun fires and we will have ammunition being delivered. They should not panic. We have been in the air for the past few days and we are notifying the citizens accordingly that the ongoing operations are to recalibrate our weapon system and fine tune our tactics. “We are satisfied that the period allocated should be enough to carry out this project. Do not forget that you need time too for the displaced citizens to be able to go back to their locations. So we are almost there.”