Teenage suicide bomber shot dead around UNIMAID (updated)

A 13-year-old male suicide bomber has reportedly been shot dead close to the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno state.

A security source told TheCable that the bomber was gunned down by the security operatives who sighted him as he was trying to sneak into the premises of the university.

“The sound you heard was the sound of the IED strapped on the bomber’s body after we shot him down. So far only the bomber died,” the source said.

“We have already contacted the police EOD team to sanitise the scene and its environ. As it is now, we are on high- level of alert as you know suicide bombers don’t come alone.

Ibrahim Jiddah, a student of the university, told TheCable that the explosion sparked tension on campus.

“We heard the sound. And that the sound is very close, I knew that the university was under attack by Boko Haram,” he said.

Boko Haram has carried out a series of attacks on the school. In January 2017, the sect struck in the university killing four people, including an infant and a professor.

Between then and now, the institution has recorded at least five attacks from Boko Haram.

Last year, Dani Mamman, chairman Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) UNIMAID chapter said at least 70 lecturers have resigned from the university since 2009 owing to the Boko Haram insurgency.