2 Blasts on Outskirts of Nigerian Capital Abuja, Official Says

Abuja: Two bombs went off on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja late on Friday, an official said, the first such incident in over a year.

There was an unknown number of casualties, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said. He had no more details on the blasts in Kuje and Nyanya.

Spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said that the bomb in Kuje went off near a police station while the one in Nyanya detonated in a crowded area not far from the site of two blasts in April and May last year that killed at least 90 people.

Before then, there had not been an attack on the capital in two years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Five Boko Haram militants were arrested for two car bombings in the Abuja suburb Nyanya and an international arrest warrant was issued for the suspected mastermind, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who was later brought to court in Nigeria.

Boko Haram has been trying to carve out an Islamist state in the country's northeast since 2009, killing thousands and displacing 2.1 million people.

Since losing most of the territory it took over earlier this year, it has reverted to hitting soft targets like markets, bus stations and places of worship as well as hit-and-run attacks on villages, mainly in northeastern Borno state.