Police in the northern Nigerian city of Kano said they arrested five suspected Boko Haram militants following a gunfight Sunday as eight people were killed after female suicide bombers attacked two displaced persons camps in northeastern Nigeria’s main city of Maiduguri.
The arrested suspects were taken into custody on the outskirts of Kani as they were about to launch attacks on markets and “places of worship”, the city’s state police chief Rabiu Yusuf told reporters.
Intelligence indicated that “the remnant of a Boko Haram group who escaped from Sambisa Forest were regrouping in some states in the north including Kano,” Yusuf said.
The suspected militants opened fire and hurled home-made explosives, injuring three policemen, said Yusuf.
Police arrested five suspects, three men and two women, including a 20-year old Nigerien national, Yusuf added.
Guns, explosives, military uniforms and face masks were recovered from the suspects.
The arrests came as a civilian self-defense group said at least eight people were killed in the Maiduguri suicide bombings that left another 15 people wounded.
Spokesman Bello Danbatta told The Associated Press that the attack started late Sunday night.
Danbatta said one bomber sneaked into the Dalori camp and detonated, and two other attackers exploded on or near the camp’s perimeter fence.