Maiduguri, Nigeria - Authorities say suspected members of a radical Islamist sect have shot and killed an Islamic cleric and another man, while also planting a bomb at a local primary school in northeast Nigeria.
The military said the bomb detonated early Friday morning before pupils arrived at the school in Maiduguri, the spiritual home of the sect known as Boko Haram. No one was wounded in the blast.
Borno state police spokesman Samuel Tizhie said the cleric and a shoe cobbler died in the city in a Thursday night shooting blamed on the sect.
Boko Haram has been waging an increasingly bloody fight against Nigeria’s weak central government. It also has been attacking schools in recent weeks.