Boko Haram bomb go off, kills 63

A mass of home-made explosives, found earlier at a deserted Boko Haram post, go off, killing 63 people in northeastern Nigeria. Nigerian vigilantes had come across the bombs during a patrol, collecting and taking them to the nearby town of Monguno, where they exploded on Tuesday, causing the fatalities. A handout picture taken on February 15, 2015 and released on February 18, 2015 by Nigerian army shows a Boko Haram anti-aircraft gun destroyed by the Nigerian military at the town of Monguno in the country’s northeast.

Multilateral offensives forced the Nigerian Takfiri terrorist group from the territories they had seized in the country’s northeast. Boko Haram says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of the country since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far left about 15,000 people dead and displaced about 1.5 million. The militants have pledged allegiance to the fellow Takfiri group ISIL, which is primarily operating inside Iraq and Syria, where it holds parts of both countries. The Nigerian military, however, says the extremists are now confined to the Sambisa Forest in the country’s northeast.