Blasts rock Nigeria, Buhari pushes regional fight against Boko Haram

Two blasts rocked northeast Nigeria on Thursday, killing at least six, after new President Muhammadu Buhari urged closer regional cooperation to defeat Boko Haram.

The first explosion happened in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, which has been hit by a spate of bombings in recent days, when a truck carrying firewood rammed into a checkpoint outside a military barracks.

The second hit a busy market in Yola, the capital of neighbouring Adamawa state.

At least four soldiers were killed in the first explosion, which one resident called a "suicide attack", while the second left two dead and some 30 others injured, police and locals said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but both incidents will likely be blamed on Boko Haram, whose insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state has left at least 15,000 people dead since 2009.

The Islamists had been seen as a weakened force in recent months, as a result of a four-nation military offensive involving Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon that pushed them out of captured territory.

But recent days have seen a marked increase in attacks against so-called "soft" targets, including markets and mosques.

The group this week also released a new video -- its first for several months and first under the banner of the "Islamic State in West Africa" -- claiming it was still to be reckoned with.

The bombings also coincide with the arrival of Buhari as head of state. In his inaugural speech last Friday, he described the group as "mindless" and "godless" and made crushing the rebellion his top priority.

- Regional cooperation -

Hours before the latest attacks, Buhari was in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, for talks with his counterpart Idriss Deby on tackling Boko Haram, after visiting Niger on Wednesday.
"Your troops have stood shoulder to shoulder and fought gallantly with ours in the fight against the forces of evil," the 72-year-old former military ruler told Deby.

"This is a remarkable show of good neighbourliness, which we must reinforce in the years ahead."

Deby for his part "reaffirmed Chad's involvement and availability" to work with Nigeria, according to a statement from his office.

Anglophone Nigeria has typically viewed its Francophone neighbours with suspicion, which has been blamed for the lack of a joined-up approach in tackling the militants.

On Wednesday, the military in Abuja announced that a Nigerian officer had taken charge of the new African Union-backed Multi-National Joint Task Force based in N'Djamena.

The 8,700-strong unit, made up of military personnel, police and civilians from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, had been due to be deployed last November.

Buhari said "sustained and robust" regional cooperation was essential because of the cross-border threat posed by Boko Haram.

The new fighting force "will be able to secure and stabilise all the areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency" and would help bring an end to the bloodshed, he added.

- Military tested -

Buhari has ordered the military's command centre be moved from the capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded in 2002 and which is regarded as its spiritual home.
The army has since been tested with two rocket attacks on the city, as well as an explosion opposite a military facility on Wednesday, which left at least 18 dead.

The latest attack was outside the Maimalari Barracks at about 5:00 pm (1600 GMT).

There were also two suicide bomb attacks -- one at a mosque on Saturday that killed 26 and another on Tuesday at a cattle market, in which 13 people died.

Adamawa state police spokesman Othman Abubakar said further details were expected on Friday about the explosion at the Jimeta Main Market at about 7:40 pm.

Yola has been targeted before by Boko Haram but has recently been seen as a relative safe haven for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the violence elsewhere in the troubled northeast.

Hundreds of women and children kidnapped by Boko Haram have been brought to camps in the city after they were rescued during recent military operations in the rebels' Sambisa Forest stronghold in Borno.