A suicide bomber killed at least 7 people outside a commercial bank in a northeast Nigerian town on Friday, the latest suspected attack by Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, police and local residents said.
The blast occurred at an ATM point of a branch of the First Bank of Nigeria in Azare in Bauchi state, an area that has suffered previous attacks by the Islamist militants who appear to be ignoring a ceasefire deal announced by the government last month.
“We can confirm that one of our branches in Azare was attacked by suspected insurgents, specifically the ATM point,” Babatunde Lasaki, First Bank’s head of media and external relations, told Reuters by phone from the bank’s HQ in Lagos.
Local police said they believed a female suicide bomber carried out the attack, and four other suspects were arrested.
Police confirmed seven dead at the scene, with 10 people taken to hospital. An employee of another nearby bank in Azare said at least 13 people died as a result of the blast.
Lasaki said none of First Bank’s staff at the Azare branch, which is on the main road to Kano, were among the victims.
Banks have been among the locations attacked by Boko Haram, which has killed thousands, mostly in the northeast, in its campaign to establish an Islamic enclave in northern Nigeria.
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