4 killed in Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria: authorities

At least four people were killed when Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked northeast Nigeria's biggest city, the emergency services said today, as residents returned home.

Violence broke out on the outskirts of Maiduguri last night, with indications the jihadists were trying to reach the city's Giwa Barracks, where suspected militants are held.

The attack -- and an announcement that 22 soldiers from a regional force have been killed in fighting this month -- again underlined the threat posed by the Islamist insurgents.

Nigeria has repeatedly maintained the Islamic State group affiliate is a spent force and on the verge of defeat.

In Maiduguri, Bashir Garga, from the National Emergency Management Agency, said: "There were innocent citizens, four of them, who died.

"Very few people were injured and none of them seriously." Five suicide bombers also died trying to detonate their explosives, he added.

The Borno state police gave a lower death toll of two, including a member of the civilian militia assisting the military with security against Boko Haram.

"The victims and corpses have been evacuated to the state specialist hospital in Maiduguri," said police chief Damian Chukwu.

"Normalcy has been restored in the area." Yesterday's attack, which was repelled with the arrival of troop reinforcements and air support, was a rare urban incursion by Boko Haram.

Nigeria has been fighting Boko Haram in northern Borno around the shores of Lake Chad, which forms the border with Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Troops from all four countries, and Nigeria's western neighbour Benin, have combined in a regional force to combat the cross-border threat from the group.