LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Five people were killed in northeastern Maiduguri in Nigeria after a bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque Wednesday night, police said in a statement.
Police added that 35 people were injured in the attack, which they said was most likely a suicide attack.
“Preliminary investigations also suggest that the incident may have been a suicide bombing, based on the recovery of fragments of a suspected suicide vest and recorded witness statements, while investigations continue to establish the exact cause and circumstances,” Borno state police spokesman Nahum Daso said in a statement.
Daso said police are combing the area for secondary devices.
The blast is the latest in a series of attacks in Nigeria's restive northern region, where the country is battling multiple armed groups including Boko Haram and its splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province and others. Several thousand people have been killed and millions forced from their homes since 2009, according to the United Nations.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the use of suicide bombers has been largely attributed to Boko Haram, an Islamic militant group that has previously claimed responsibility for many similar attacks in the northeastern region.
Analysts say the group's use of suicide bombings has declined over the past few years, but it still has the ability to carry out such attacks. In July 2024, a three-pronged suicide attack on a wedding ceremony in Borno raised the specter of renewed use of the method by the militant group.
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