Nigerian troops were accused of burning homes and shooting indiscriminately on Monday after a bomb attack in the country’s northeast blamed on Islamists which killed a soldier and a civilian.
A military spokesman denied soldiers had carried out abuses and said the bomb blast in the violence-torn city of Maiduguri set off a fire fed by petrol canisters along the roadside that took three hours to douse.
“We have been forced to abandon our homes by shooting and burning of homes and vehicles by soldiers following the attack on their patrol vehicle,” one resident said by phone. “Everybody is fleeing.”
Another resident gave a similar account.
It was not the first time the military has been accused of abuses in Maiduguri, where thousands of residents have previously fled fearing further violence by Islamists and reprisals by soldiers.
The military said suspected Islamists remotely detonated a bomb that set off the fire.
“Three soldiers and one civilian were seriously injured following the explosion of a remote-controlled improvised explosive device planted along a dusty road in Dala area of Maiduguri,” Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed said.
He said later in the day that one of the soldiers and the civilian died from their injuries.
The assailants were believed to be members of the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, blamed for scores of attacks, mainly in the country’s northeast.
The sect also claimed responsibility for the August 26 bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja that killed at least 23 people.
“We believe that the device was planted by Boko Haram people. We have arrested eight suspects in connection with the explosion,” said Mohammed.
The civilian was selling petrol by the roadside in the area at the time of the explosion, said Mohammed. Petrol canisters in the area contributed to the inferno, he said.
Nine vehicles parked along the narrow road were burnt, he said.
The bomb “was detonated by a remote control targeted at one of our patrol vehicles. The device exploded as our patrol vehicle was passing by. The vehicle was flung metres away”, he said.
Soldiers have previously been accused of shooting civilians and burning homes after accusing residents of cooperating with the Islamists.
Amnesty International has said security forces killed at least 23 people following a bomb blast in Maiduguri in July and 25 people died in a raid following another bomb attack earlier that month.
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