Suicide bombers have struck at the gates to a Nigerian university, killing two people and wounding 17, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram.
A professor at the University of Maiduguri and a child have been killed and 17 people wounded in a twin suicide bombing in the city in Nigeria’s northeast.
State emergency agency NEMA said two suicide bombers blew themselves up at different gates to the university in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state – the former stronghold of Boko Haram Islamist militants – about 5am (3pm AEDT) on Monday.
There was no claim of responsibility but the attacks bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency to set up an Islamic state in Nigeria’s northeast.
The group has stepped up attacks in the past few weeks as the end of the wet season aids movement in the bush.
In early 2015, Boko Haram controlled an area about the size of Belgium, and has been pushed out of most of that territory by Nigeria’s army and troops from neighbouring countries.
In December, President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram fighters had been pushed out of the Sambisa forest, their last stronghold in the northeast.
Security analysts say the group’s ability to carry out attacks in neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad suggests it has multiple bases.