Boko Haram attacks police, suicide bombing foiled
Boko Haram insurgents bombed a police station in northeast Nigeria, as the Islamists pressed on with attacks despite a multinational offensive targeting their strongholds, witnesses and security sources said Thursday, AFP reported.
Separately, an attempted suicide attack was foiled outside a political office elsewhere in the embattled northeast, raising fears of growing unrest in the run-up to Nigeria's general election, which has been postponed by six weeks.
The Boko Haram uprising has raged for six years, killing more than 13,000 people, and the sect has in recent months increasingly posed a regional threat.
Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger have since the start of this month launched an unprecedented joint effort to crush the uprising, raising hopes that this new cooperation could turn the tide.
In a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed that "serious advances will be made" over the next six weeks, meaning security will have improved by the new election day, March 28.
"But I'm not saying [we will] wipe out Boko Haram," he added.