Multiple blasts hit Nigeria's Maiduguri city after years of calm

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Multiple explosions rocked the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri Monday evening, government and healthcare sources told AFP, on the back of an overnight attack on a military post.

Earlier, suspected jihadists launched an attack on a Nigerian military post on the outskirts of Maiduguri, a key northeastern city that had not seen such violence in years.

Another attack took place overnight in the Damboa local government area, south of Maiduguri.

Dauda Iliya, a media aide to the Borno State government, said that "agencies are trying to confirm if there are any casualties" from the Monday evening blasts at the city's main market and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

An AFP reporter at the hospital saw dozens of wounded people seeking treatment.

Idris Suleiman Gimba, who works with the National Blood Service Commission, said there was also a blast near the post office.

Fighters from Boko Haram and rival jihadist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have recently stepped up attacks in northeastern Nigeria.

Their 16-year campaign to establish a caliphate in the country has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million.

The earlier attack was launched around midnight on a Nigerian military post in Ajilari Cross district, a southwestern suburb of Maiduguri and just a few kilometers from the city's airport.

Police said the overnight incidents followed "widespread reports of sporadic gunshots and explosions" and were a result of "attempted infiltrations by suspected" Boko Haram or ISWAP militants.

"In a swift and coordinated response, joint security operatives who were already on heightened alert engaged the insurgents and successfully repelled the attacks, forcing the terrorists to retreat," police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement.

He said no casualties were recorded among the military or civilians in the earlier attacks, adding the insurgents were believed to have suffered casualties.

Residents reported four deaths on the attackers' side.

Resident Yakaka Ali Gana said: "This is the first time attackers have stormed our community and attacked the military base."

The military has yet to comment.

Maiduguri, once the scene of shootings and bombings, had been relatively calm in recent years, with attacks peaking in the mid-2010s.

The last major attack dates back to 2021, when Boko Haram jihadists fired mortars at the city, killing 10 people.

In December, an unclaimed bombing killed at least seven people in a city mosque.

But in the countryside surrounding Maiduguri, violence has continued.

Last week, the army confirmed "coordinated attacks" on several military bases in the northeast, which killed at least 14 people, including 10 soldiers, according to local civilian and military sources.

Last month, the United States began deploying troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to the country's soldiers in fighting jihadist groups.

The U.S. Africa Command said 200 troops were expected to join the deployment overall.

The deployment came after U.S. President Donald Trump said the violence amounted to the "persecution" of Christians -- a framing long used by the U.S. religious and political right wing.

Nigeria's government and many independent experts say Christians and Muslims alike are the victims of the country's violence.

© 2026 AFP