Accessibility links

Breaking News

Suicide Bombing Kills 30 in Nigerian Market

update

FILE - Security forces stand guard at the site of bomb explosion at a market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, March 7, 2015. On Friday, dozens of people were killed when two female suicide bombers attacked a market in the town of Madagali.
FILE - Security forces stand guard at the site of bomb explosion at a market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, March 7, 2015. On Friday, dozens of people were killed when two female suicide bombers attacked a market in the town of Madagali.

At least 30 people are dead in northeast Nigeria after a pair of female suicide bombers struck the busy market Friday morning, Nigeria's army said.

The army blamed the attack on the Boko Haram Islamist group, which has been known to use women and young girls to launch suicide attacks, though the group did not immediately claim responsibility for the bombing.

"The two bombers, who [were] disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing," said Yusuf Muhammad, of the Madagali local government.

Army spokesman Maj. Badere Akintoye said that, in addition to those who were killed, 67 wounded people were transported to a local hospital.

The Madagali area had been under Boko Haram control for several months last year before it was liberated by Nigeria's military. Boko Haram still keeps a stronghold in the nearby Sambisa Forest.

Boko Haram has launched several similar attacks in the Madagali area over the past year. In December 2015, two female suicide bombers killed 30 people at a bus station near the same market, and in June, a militant attack on a funeral left 18 people dead.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Boko Haram had been "technically defeated" in December 2015, but the attacks continue.

XS
SM
MD
LG