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Explosion kills six in northeast Nigeria: sources
Six people, including fourchildren, were killed on Saturday when an explosive device collected by metalscavengers exploded in northeast Nigeria's Borno state where troops arefighting jihadist groups, a local official and two anti-jihadist militia toldAFP Sunday.
The home-made bomb went off when two metal scavengers were sorting throughscraps they collected from the bush outside the town of Gubio, 80 kilometresfrom the regional capital Maiduguri, the sources said.
"Six people were killed in the IED (improvised explosive device) explosion,two men and four children who were pupils of an Islamic seminary near thescene," Mali Bulama, political administrator for Gubio district said.
The identity of the men had yet to be determined because they were badlymutilated by the blast that occurred inside an unfinished building used tostore scraps, Bulama added.
Militia leader Babakura Kolo said the men were rummaging through heaps ofmetal when the device went off.
"The metal scavengers were sorting out the metals for possible objects ofvalue when they brought out the IED from one of the sacks and it went off,killing them and four children playing nearby," Kolo said.
Umar Ari, another militia member, gave the same toll.
The 14-year jihadist violence in the northeast has killed 40,000 anddisplaced around two million from their homes, forcing them to live inmakeshift camps where they receive meagre food handouts from internationalcharities.
Many of the displaced comb the landscape for firewood and metal scraps toraise money for food to supplement inadequate rations.
The loggers and scrap metal scavengers as well as farmers and herders aretargeted by the jihadists who accuse them of spying on them for troops andmilitias fighting them.
Last June, Borno state authorities banned scrap metal collecting following anincrease in jihadist attacks on the scavengers whom the authorities alsoaccused of vandalising public property.
Despite the ban, scavengers continue their search amid risk of attacks byjihadists and explosion from unexploded ordnances, reports BSS.
In July 2022, 13 metal scrap collectors were killed and three others injuredwhen an unexploded ordnance they excavated from the bush went off in the townof Bama near Sambisa forest, a jihadist enclave.