Nigerian soldier, four civilians killed in mine explosion

A Nigerian solider and four civilians were killed in a mine explosion on Sunday, the army has announced.
The incident happened along the Biu -Damboa road, close to a military checkpoint, the army spokesperson, Sani Usman, said in a statement.
Retreating members of the Boko Haram are known to plant mines, also called Improvised Explosive Devices, on roads as they run from soldiers who are trying to restore peace and normalcy to affected states.
On Sunday, Mr. Usman, a colonel, said the four civilians died instantly while the soldier died at the hospital.
Read the full statement after the cut...

At about 8.15am today a tricycle, known as “Keke NAPEP” unknowingly stepped on an Improvise Explosive Device (IED) planted by the side of Biu -Damboa road close to a military checkpoint at the outskirts of Biu town, Borno State.
Unfortunately, the IED exploded instantly killing 4 persons comprising of a woman with her baby and 2 other male adults.
Three other persons were injured including a soldier and they were immediately evacuated to Biu General Hospital. We regret to state that the injured soldier also died at the hospital.

The general area has been cordoned off and Explosive Ordinance Device (EOD) team from Forward Operation Base (FOB) in Buratai have been mobilized to carry out further search of the area.
Preliminary investigations shows that the IED was buried long time ago undetected. It exploded when the tricycle erroneously stepped on it.
We commiserate with the families of the victims of this sad incident.
This unfortunate development has brought to the fore, the need for more security consciousness and vigilance among all.
We would like to reiterate that the explosion would not deter us from seeing to the end of Boko Haram terrorists wherever they might be hiding through our ongoing clearance operations.
We want to use this opportunity to solicit for more cooperation from the members of the public to enable us succeed in the fight against the remnants of these criminal elements going by the appellation “Boko Haram terrorists”.