Twin explosions on Monday ripped through a
crowded market in the northeastern Nigerian
city of Maiduguri, the capital of restive Borno
State, leaving dozens of people dead,
eyewitnesses said.
According to Abdullah Pagu, a local trader, a
female bomber detonated explosive devices
attached to her body when youth volunteers
on patrol in the market attempted to stop her.
"She was carrying a nylon bag and was
stopped around the area where fowls and
chickens are sold. I was looking at the
scenario from my shop not very far from the
scene and suddenly a bomb went off from
her," Pagu told The Anadolu Agency.
"I can't really say if the bomb went off from
her nylon bag or her body. The second one
went off about three minutes later," he added.
Many people immediately fled the area, said
Quazim Sani, a sales officer who was in the
market when the explosions occurred. The
second blast, he said, may have killed more
people than the first.
Rescue operations by military troops,
policemen and youth volunteers are ongoing
even as the authorities of the market said it
was shutting down commercial activities till a
further notice.
The explosion came barely a week after a
similar twin blast killed about 30 people in
the same market.
A suicide bomber also rammed his explosive-
laden car into a crowded area near the
market in July, killing at least 21.
Boko Haram has intensified bomb attacks
recently in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State
and other neighboring areas in the northern
part of Africa's most populous nation despite
the government's promises to end the Boko
Haram insurgency, which has plagued the
region in the past five years.
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