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| Two blasts simultaneously ripped through the suburbs of Kuje and Nyanya outlying Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on October 2, 2015, leaving 18 people dead and 41 injured (AFP Photo/PHILIP OJISUA) |
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - A top Boko Haram leader accused of organising deadly twin blasts in the Nigerian capital Abuja that killed 18 people has been arrested, police said Friday.
A police
statement said Umar Abdulmalik and seven other jihadists were arrested, without
giving details.
Forty-one
people were also injured in the October 2, 2015 blasts which simultaneously
ripped through the suburbs of Kuje and Nyanya outlying the federal capital.
The
explosions happened near a police station in Kuje and at a bus stop in Nyanya.
Kuje, near
Abuja’s airport, is 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the city centre and seat
of government. Its prison at the time held dozens of Boko Haram prisoners
captured by troops.
The same
bus station in Nyanya, to the east, was hit twice in 2014. The first attack, on
14 April 2014, left at least 75 dead and was claimed by the Islamists; the
second, on 1 May, left at least 16 dead.
In the
latest attack, the jihadists ambushed a military convoy in the northeastern
state of Borno killing at least two soldiers, military sources told AFP Friday.
Thursday's
attack saw them attacking with guns and rocket-propelled grenades on a convoy
of troops near Bongori village in Damboa district, two military officers said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
The troops
from the state capital Maiduguri, the cradle of the Boko Haram movement, were
heading to the town of Damboa, about 90 kilometres away.
Three
soldiers were injured and an armoured vehicle was damaged, a military officer
said. The second officer confirmed the information.
Boko Haram
has intensified attacks on military targets in Borno and neighbouring Yobe
state, killing dozens.
Last week,
two Nigerian soldiers were killed in a roadside mine explosion outside the town
of Gamboru near the border with Cameroon blamed on the jihadists troops.
More than
27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in the remote
northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million have been made homeless.
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