AT least six schoolchildren were killed in northeast Nigeria by an improvised explosive device which they had mistaken for scrap metal, police and a local official said on Sunday.
The children, aged between 13 and 15, picked up the explosive device on Saturday along with some scrap metal and stored it in an uncompleted building at an Islamic school in the Gubio area of Borno state, heartland of a long-running Islamist insurgency.
Reports say a metal scavenger unknowingly collected and stored various metallic items in a building near the Tsangaya school.
Two weeks ago, two repentant Boko Haram insurgents were killed by an IED planted by Boko Haram terrorists in the Korede axis of Damboa LGA.
The two former insurgents are among several other supporting troops of Operation Hadin Kai of 25 Brigade in Damboa.