Nigerians began voting for a new president Saturday after a week-long delay that has raised political tempers, sparked conspiracy claims and stoked fears of violence, including terrorist attacks and post-electoral unrest.
Just hours before polls were set to open, suspected Islamist attacked a northeastern Nigerian town, forcing residents to flee.
“We have fled, along with our wives and children and hundreds of others,” Ibrahim Gobi, who lives in the town of Geidam in Yobe state, told Reuters by telephone. “We are right now running and hiding in the bushes.”
Around the same time a Reuters witness said blasts were heard in Maiduguri, the capital of the neighbouring state of Borno.
Northeast Nigeria has been hit by the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency with attacks in recent months carried out by offshoot Islamic State in West Africa Province.
Security has been tightened across the country following a campaign season that saw 233 people killed in 67 incidents of election-related violence from October to Friday, according to independent analysts, SBM
An attack in northeastern Nigeria by suspected Islamist militants just hours before polls were set to open in Nigeria’s presidential election Saturday underscored the challenges confronting Africa’s most
populous nation.