Fear and anguish gripped the community of Mairari in Borno State on Saturday as a deadly bomb blast, planted by terrorists, claimed the lives of nine people and left several others severely injured.
The tragic incident occurred at about 11 a.m. in Mairari village, located in Guzamala Local Government Area, when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated at a local bus stop bustling with passengers. The device, believed to have been planted by Boko Haram or its ISWAP offshoot, exploded as unsuspecting residents gathered to board commercial vehicles, instantly killing nine and injuring dozens more.
Confirming the horror, Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulkarim Lawan, described the attack as a direct hit on his resilient constituents who were merely trying to resume their daily lives.
“It is unfortunate that nine of my resilient constituents were killed by planted IEDs while waiting to board vehicles at a local bus stop in Mairari village,” Lawan said, his voice heavy with sorrow. “May Allah grant their souls Aljanatul Firdaus. I also pray for the swift recovery of those currently receiving treatment in Monguno and Maiduguri hospitals.”
The Speaker decried the relentless wave of terror attacks that have continued to plague the region, revealing that Mairari had previously been resettled twice and was one of the few areas in Guzamala with established civil authority. However, renewed insurgent activities have once again forced residents into displacement.
“Many of the displaced persons currently sheltering in Monguno, Guzamala, and Maiduguri often return to Mairari to tend their farmlands,” he explained. “Unfortunately, these terrorists monitor their movements and laid the deadly trap that exploded while they were trying to return home.”
Lawan extended his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and called on security agencies to step up efforts to reclaim and secure Guzamala—particularly Mairari and Gudumbali, the council headquarters—areas that have remained under insurgent control without any formal government presence for years.
Efforts to get a statement from the Borno State Police Command proved futile. When SaharaReporters reached out to the Command’s spokesperson, Nahum Daso, he answered a call without saying a word and then failed to respond to further inquiries via phone and text.
This latest attack comes on the heels of another tragic incident reported by SaharaReporters on May 29, 2025, involving the loss of nine brave members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Marte, also in Borno State.
According to a situation report from Counter-Terrorism Unit Base 8, the CJTF, a volunteer security outfit supporting the Nigerian military in its counter-insurgency operations, came under heavy attack around 1:10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 27. Despite being outgunned, the CJTF managed to repel the insurgents in a ferocious firefight that lasted for hours.
However, in a tragic twist, nine CJTF operatives lost their lives when they inadvertently triggered an IED while attempting to retrieve the body of a fallen comrade. The retreating insurgents had booby-trapped the path, leading to the devastating loss.
The report further confirmed that several civilians abducted during the attack were gruesomely executed before the terrorists fled the scene.
“They planted an IED, and as the CJTF operatives went to recover one of their fallen comrades, they stepped on it. Nine died instantly. Some captured civilians were also gruesomely slaughtered,” the report stated grimly.
The renewed wave of violence underscores the fragile security situation in the North-East and the urgent need for a coordinated, intelligence-driven response from security forces to prevent further bloodshed.
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