17:14 17/06/2015
Kano - At least 12 people were killed and 40 others injured in
northeast Nigeria when an explosive device detonated, civilian
vigilantes helping the military against Boko Haram told AFP on
Wednesday.
The device was picked up by one of the vigilantes as
they travelled back to the Borno state town of Monguno from a military
operation against the militants in Marte, 40 kilometres (26 miles) away.
"We
lost 12 members in the accidental explosion, which also injured 40
others," vigilante leader Abdullahi Amadu Bukar told AFP from the Borno
state capital, Maiduguri.
"We have brought seven of the dead to Maiduguri this morning (Wednesday) and left five others behind in Monguno."
The
vigilantes had been fighting the insurgents alongside troops in Marte
when one of them picked up the explosive device and brought it back to
Monguno.
It exploded late on Tuesday as the civilian fighters were
examining it on the outskirts of the town, said Bukar, whose account
was backed up by another vigilante, Awwal Ibrahim.
Nigeria's
military claimed to have liberated Marte and Monguno in February after a
ground and air campaign but Bukar said the insurgents had returned to
Marte once troops withdrew.
Elsewhere, a military truck
accompanying technicians from a Nigerian power company to make repairs
in the Damboa district of Borno on Monday hit a roadside bomb believed
to have planted by the rebels.
Three soldiers were killed in the
blast, forcing the team to abandon the mission and returned to
Maiduguri, 86 kilometres away, according to local vigilante sources.
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