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Military officials say a truck carrying refugees to a newly liberated town exploded a land-mine in northeast Nigeria and wounded several people.

It's the third attack in two weeks on returnees blamed on Boko Haram Islamic extremists. A taxi-van of refugees exploded Oct. 12 outside Maiduguri, killing eight people and an armoured personnel carrier escorting refugees hit a land-mine, injuring several soldiers.

Maiduguri is the biggest city in the northeast, the birthplace of Boko Haram and houses more than 1 million refugees from the 7-year Islamic uprising.

Nigeria's military said Wednesday's explosion hit a truck in a military escorted convoy of 200 vehicles travelling from Maiduguri 140 kilometres (88 miles) northeast to Gamboru-Ngala.

The attacks come as Nigeria's government hopes to persuade hundreds of thousands of refugees to return home.

This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.

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