Three blast hit Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Tuesday and gunfire rang out after suspected members of an Islamist sect attacked police stations, a Reuters witness said.
“There is shooting in the streets and there have been at least three separate blasts,” the witness said.
Suspected members of radical group Boko Haram, which says it wants a wider application of sharia (Islamic law) in Africa’s most populous nation, has carried out almost daily attacks in and around Maiduguri in recent months.
A spokesman for the group also claimed responsibility on local radio last week for coordinated bombs that killed at least 16 people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in on May 29.
The views of Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful”, are not espoused by most of the country’s Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is unclear how many followers the sect has but poverty, unemployment and a lack of education in the far northeast have enabled its leaders to build a cult-like following which is as much violently anti-establishment as fervently religious.
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