At least 54 people were killed in a series of blasts in the northeast
Nigerian city of Maiduguri, police said on Monday, the latest attacks
by Boko Haram militants on "soft" civilian targets.
The attacks
targeted the Ajilari Cross evening market area and neighbouring Gomari,
hitting worshippers at a mosque and football fans watching a televised
match.
The army and rescuers said the explosions were caused by
home made devices but one local and the police said a female suicide
bomber also blew herself up.
"Fifty-four persons died while 90 others were injured," Borno state police spokesman Victor Isuku told reporters.
"Those injured are being treated at Umaru Shehu General hospital and the [Borno] State Specialist hospital respectively."
Locals however, put the death toll at at least 21.
The
blasts - the latest to hit the city in the six-year insurgency - came
after Nigeria's army claimed the rebels were in disarray.
But Boko
Haram's shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau denied the group was a spent
force, describing the military claims as "lies" in an audio recording
published via social media on Saturday.
The explosions also
followed a warning from Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari that
"conventional" Boko Haram attacks were decreasing but that suicide and
homemade bomb outrages could continue.
Multiple blasts
Army
spokesperson Sani Usman said the blasts, which locals believed could
have been aimed to distract security forces to enable an attack on the
city, "signify (a) high level of desperation on the part of the Boko
Haram terrorists".
Bashir Ibrahim, who lives in the densely
populated Gomari area, near Maiduguri airport, said there were "four
separate blasts that went off simultaneously."
At least six people were killed in the first at Ajilari Cross, which in May came under heavy shelling from Boko Haram fighters.
The second injured 14, including children hawking goods at the scene but no-one was killed, he added.
Witness
Faruq Ali, a trader, said the third bomb exploded at a mosque not far
from the Binta Sugar area and may have been targeted by a woman wearing
an explosives vest.
"Luckily enough, only few people were
observing the Isha [night prayers] but we counted 11 dead bodies and
about 21 others sustained injuries," he said.
Markus John, a tyre
repairer, said the fourth bomb exploded close to the mosque near a
football "viewing centre", where matches are shown to the public on a
large screen.
"We counted four dead bodies here [at the viewing centre] and many others sustained injuries," he said.
Regional threat
Maiduguri,
the capital of Borno state and the birthplace of Boko Haram in 2002,
has been the epicentre of the six-year-old insurgency and repeatedly
attacked since Buhari assumed office.
Since May 29, at least 1 100 people have been killed, with the majority of attacks in Borno, according to AFP reporting.
Overall,
the violence has left at least 17 000 dead since 2009, according to
Amnesty International, while the UN estimates that more than two million
have been made homeless in the same period.
Apart from suicide
and bomb attacks on markets, bus stations and mosques, the insurgents
have also carried out deadly cross-border raids in neighbouring Chad,
Cameroon and Niger.
All three countries have been assisting
Nigeria in the counter-insurgency since the turn of the year, in
recognition of the group's threat to regional security.
A new 8 700-strong regional force comprising all four countries plus Benin is set to deploy against the jihadists.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Four fatal blasts in Maiduguri
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