Suicide Bomber Strikes Mosque in Northeast Nigeria, Killing 14

(Bloomberg) -- A suicide bomber killed 14 worshipers at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, a vigilante leader said, a day after Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in a rare video.

The bomber targeted those attending Wednesday’s dawn prayers in the town of Gamboru Ngala in Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, Abba Kalli, who leads a group helping the army fight Islamists in the area, said by phone from Maiduguri, the state capital.

Borno is the epicenter of an insurgency by Boko Haram that has killed more than 20,000 people in Africa’s most populous nation since 2009. While the government has several times said the group is nearly defeated, its members continue to carry out hit-and-run raids.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for recent attacks in northeast Nigeria in an unverified video published Tuesday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mustapha Muhammad in Kano at mmuhammad10@bloomberg.net, Yinka Ibukun in Lagos at yibukun@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Helen Nyambura

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