Security sources reported on Tuesday that a bomb they had dug up in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, had blown up, killing thirteen scrap metal collectors.
On Monday, 16 metal scavengers from a camp for displaced people in Bama discovered the device while searching for scrap in some nearby brush.
The city of Bama is situated in a region where jihadist insurgents and the Nigerian government have been engaged in protracted fighting.
“The bomb detonated as they were advancing on the town with it in a cart, killing 13 and critically wounding three.
The military of Nigeria is attempting to put an end to a 13-year Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced 2.2 million more.
When Boko Haram gained control of territory in northern Borno and proclaimed a Caliphate in 2014, they also took control of Bama.
After months of intense ground and aerial operations, the majority of the land was reclaimed by Nigerian troops in March 2015 with the assistance of Chadian troops.
Three years later, the town’s exiled citizens returned, many of them living in makeshift camps because the town had been largely devastated in the war to reclaim it.
Most displaced people who reside in camps rely on food handouts from humanitarian organizations, which forces many of them to cut down trees in the parched area for firewood and scavenge for metal scraps that they sell to pay for food.
Jihadists have begun attacking junk dealers, claiming that they are spies for the militias and soldiers against them.
