Suspected Islamists have killed three soldiers in attacks in northern Nigeria in the past two days, the military said Monday, the latest in a spate of such incidents that have left dozens dead.
The attacks by suspected Islamist sect members since Sunday included the shooting of a soldier guarding a church, gunmen opening fire on a checkpoint and assailants targeting another soldier as he was leaving a mosque.
In the latest attack, motorcycle-riding gunmen in the city of Maiduguri shot and killed a soldier soon after he stepped out of a mosque on Monday evening, a senior military officer said.
“The soldier was on sick leave from a sore foot and was in the area to visit his relations when he was attacked outside a mosque this evening by gunmen on a motorcycle who sped off after the attack,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.
“This was the third soldier to be killed in just two days in similar attacks by suspected Boko Haram members.”
On Sunday night, suspected members of the sect known as Boko Haram opened fire at a checkpoint, killing a soldier.
The attackers wounded two others at the checkpoint in the town of Biu, 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Maiduguri, the epicentre of a 2009 uprising by the sect.
“We lost a soldier to motorcycle-riding gunmen who attacked a military checkpoint in Biu,” army spokesman in the region Lieutenant Abubakar Abdullahi told AFP.
The attack came after another soldier was shot dead and his rifle stolen while guarding a church in Maiduguri earlier Sunday.
Authorities said the sect, whose 2009 uprising was brutally put down by the military, has also been behind a spate of recent armed robberies. Officials said the group has sought to raise money to buy weapons.
The group also claimed three attacks on churches on Christmas Eve that left six people dead and one of the churches burnt.
More than 80 people have been killed in the last seven months in Maiduguri in attacks blamed on Boko Haram, according to security sources.
Police, however, have said politics may be behind some of the attacks in the run-up to April general elections.