At least 10 people were killed Saturday when a bomb exploded in the
northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, witnesses said, in a region where
the Islamist sect Boko Haram is pursuing a bloody insurgency.
Boko Haram, whose fight for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has
killed thousands and made the group the biggest threat to security in
Africa's top oil producer, is increasingly targeting the civilian
population.
The bomb went off at around 6 p.m. local time in a busy market area
in Ajilari-Gomari near the city's airport, two witnesses and a police
source said.
"I am at the scene now, it is very bad," local resident Ismaila Abdulraman told Reuters by telephone.
"Many men, women and children died. The fire service are on the
ground now and they are bringing corpses of people and trying to put out
the fire at the scene," Abdulraman added, saying he had already seen 10
bodies.
Dozens trapped in rubble
The final death toll was likely to be higher because dozens of people were trapped in the rubble, the witnesses said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but
Boko Haram only communicates occasionally through Internet videos, days
or weeks after attacks.
The military and police did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.
President Goodluck Jonathan started an intensified military push to
end Boko Haram's four-and-a-half year insurgency almost a year ago but
the bloodshed has not diminished. He is expected to run in a closely
contested election next year.
The violence has been largely contained to Nigeria's remote
northeastern rural areas on the borders with Cameroon and Niger, far
from commercial hubs such as Lagos and Abuja, and from the southern oil
fields. The attack in the northeast's biggest city marks a setback for
Jonathan's military campaign.
"The insurgents targeted a busy area where they knew many people
usually visit in the evening for commercial activities. It appears Boko
Haram are in the city again," a policeman said, asking not to be named.
Dozens of school children were shot or burned to death in a rural region near the northeastern city of Damaturu last week.
Insurgents killed more than 300 people last month, mostly civilians,
including in two other attacks that killed around 100 each, one in which
militants razed a village and shot panicked residents as they tried to
flee.
Western governments are concerned about Nigerian groups such as Boko
Haram linking up with al-Qaeda-linked cells in other countries in the
Sahel region, such as Mali, where France sent troops a year ago to oust
Islamist militants.
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