Nigeria: Over 48 people were killed in a suicide bombing attacks on Monday in two different cities in north Nigeria where Boko Haram is waging a six-year campaign to create an Islamic state, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast bore the hallmarks of the group, whose insurgency has killed thousands and displaced some 2.1 million people in the region.
The first blast on Monday took place at a mosque in a Maiduguri suburb in which 20 people died and 91 wounded, said Mohammed Kanar, a local official in the national relief agency NEMA.
Musa Abdukadir, a resident, said he had counted more than 50 bodies in the hospital after the blast. Medics had told him more bodies had been brought to two other hospitals. The count included victims from Sunday’s fighting.
“We all fled yesterday as our houses were on fire. This morning we came back, and while we were counting the people who had burned in the houses, another bomb exploded,” said Ibrahim Goni, another resident.
In the second attack, army commander Lamidi Adeoshun, told reporters, but no more details were immediately available. It killed many people at the market and over 30 were injured.
