A spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that “many people have been killed” but did not have an official death toll/FILE
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Nov 25 – More than 45 people died Tuesday in twin bomb blasts, including one by a female suicide bomber, at a packed market in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri.
The explosions in the Borno state capital targeted the same Monday Market area where at least 15 people died July 1 in blast blamed on the Boko Haram militant group.
Tuesday’s attack came after the militants seized control of another town in Nigeria’s restive northeast.
Health worker Dogara Shehu said he counted more than “45 people killed, some of them completely decapitated” in the Maiduguri blasts in an account supported by another witness.
An official with Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that “many people have been killed” but did not have an official death toll.
One senior police officer, who requested anonymity, described the explosion, which happened at about 11am (1000 GMT), as a “powerful bomb”, which was felt across the city.
Market trader Usman Babaji told AFP the explosives were hidden in a motorised, three-wheeled rickshaw, which are popular throughout the country.
A second explosion followed moments later as people rushed to the scene of the first bombing to help the injured, witnesses said.
Abubakar Bello, who sells chickens near the scene, said the woman was carrying explosives in a wrapper on her back, in the same way that babies are carried.
“She manoeuvred her way to the scene of the earlier explosion,” he said in an account supported by three others.
“I think it was a deliberate plan to inflict much pain on unsuspecting people because the second explosion went off after many people gathered at the scene of the first one.”
About The Author
