By Matthew Don with agency report
Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed at least 27 people and wounded 83 in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, Reuters quoted a source on Tuesday, August 15.
Reuters reported that a woman bomber reportedly blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in Konduga, a village near Maiduguri.
Two suicide bombers were also said to have blown themselves up at the gates to a nearby refugee camp, with no others killed but many injured.
It was on a day the leader of the dreaded Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, reportedly threatened to carry out fresh attacks in Maiduguri, as he reminded the authorities that he does not fear about the report to arrest him dead or alive.
In a video obtained by Sahara Reporters, Shekau vowed to deal with the people living in Maiduguri “because of their association with infidels.”
“You are finished, you the people of Maiduguri, we will finish you for choosing the way of the infidels, for embracing democracy,” said the sect leader who spoke in Arabic.
Shekau also distanced himself from the claim of the military that he sustained injuries in an air raid, adding that if the military succeeds in capturing him, his ideology would outlive him.
His words: “I am fine, nothing has happened to me. I am even stronger than I was before.
“I am nothing. Even if you capture me, you cannot capture the religion of Islam. You can capture me today because I am nothing. But it won’t stop the religion of Allah which we are committed to. This gun I am holding is nothing, we rely strongly on the ultimate power of Almighty God.”
Last month, July 22 to be precise, the chief of army staff, Leutenant-General Tukur Buratai, gave his men 40 days within which to capture Shekau dead or alive.
Before Buratai gave the order on Shekau, the military had claimed several times to have killed him. But each time that claim was made, Shekau would appear in a video to announce he is alive and well.