Five people were killed when an improvised explosive device exploded in north-east Nigeria, in a region where Boko Haram insurgents have operated for years, the country's military said Sunday. A rickshaw driving close to a military checkpoint on the outskirts of Biu town, Borno State, ran over the IED in the morning.
"Preliminary investigations shows that the IED was buried long time ago undetected. It exploded when the tricycle erroneously stepped on it," Nigerian military spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.
"The IED exploded instantly killing four persons comprising of a woman with her baby and two other male adults," Usman said, adding that a soldier injured by the blast later died in hospital.