Voters brave Boko Haram bullets to cast ballots

Maiduguri, March 28

Under the watchful gaze of heavily armed troops, thousands of Nigerians cast their ballots on Saturday in the northeast, braving threats by Boko Haram to bomb polling stations and shoot voters.

By the afternoon, suspected gunmen from the Islamist militant group had killed 14 voters, including an opposition politician, in three separate assaults on polling stations in the northeast.

In the regional capital Maiduguri, military helicopters hovered above voters waiting in line for an election that has been overshadowed by Boko Haram's bloody six-year campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate in Africa's most populous nation.

The election was originally scheduled for Feb. 14 but was postponed at the last minute by six weeks, officially because of the security threat in the northeast, where Boko Haram until recently controlled territory the size of Belgium.

Since then a concerted military offensive involving neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger has helped recapture most occupied towns.

In Maiduguri, which has suffered dozens of attacks and major suicide bombs in the last two years, voters were determined to make their voice heard. — Reuters