(Bloomberg) -- Nigerian security forces stopped an attack on a convoy carrying aides of President Muhammadu Buhari to the northern state Katsina, the latest escalation in insecurity in Africa’s biggest economy. 

Unknown gunmen opened fire on vehicles traveling ahead of the president’s visit to his hometown of Daura, but were fought off by soldiers and police, presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said on Twitter. Two people received minor injuries, Shehu said. 

The attack came the same day suspected members of Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a medium-security prison in Kuje, a suburb of the capital, Abuja. About 200 of the 600 prisoners who escaped remain at large, according to Abubakar Umar, spokesman of the Nigerian Correctional Services. 

Buhari, a former general, rode to power in 2015 promising to address rising insecurity in Africa’s most-populous country. But violence has spread across the country over the past seven years, with armed groups frequently carrying out mass abductions and killings.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.