The nine-year jihadist conflict, which has spilled into Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, has claimed 27,000 people and left some 1.8 million homeless in Nigeria alone.
Two soldiers have died and 12 others injured at the weekend in two mine blasts in the North-East, where troops are battling Boko Haram extremists, military and militia sources said.
The two incidents occurred on Saturday, a military officer said.
“We lost two soldiers in the incidents. Nine others and three civilian vigilantes were injured,” said an officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
In the first incident, troops on foot patrol stepped on a mine around Kumshe village, near the border with Cameroon.
“Two soldiers were killed in the explosion,” a member of a civilian militia assisting in the fight against the jihadists, according to the Military source
Hours later, a military patrol hit a mine planted on a road between the towns of Dikwa and Marte, about 140 kilometers away. Nine soldiers were wounded as well as three from the civilian militia group, the officer said.
Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in Borno and neighboring Yobe State in recent months.
Nigeria government has been urged to intensify the war against terrorism and stop politics with it.
