Boko Haram kills 24 in Maiduguri,Ngamdu

A suspected female suicide bomber killed at least 12 people on Tuesday in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, military and hospital sources said, three days after a multiple bomb attack in the city killed more than 50. Boko Haram Islamist militants also attacked the town of Ngamdu in Borno State early on Tuesday, killing about a dozen people, reports Reuters. On Tuesday, a loud blast rocked Maiduguri just after 4p.m. and a military source at the scene said a woman had detonated her bomb at a roundabout near the Monday Market, which has been attacked numerous times before. Passer-by Abdulaziz Olawale, who was a few metres (yards) away when the bomb went off, said he believed it had been the work of a female suicide bomber, and that he had seen her charred and dismembered body.

“The place was very busy. Many people were waiting to pick up taxis and some were walking down the road when the blast occurred,” Olawale said. A source at the State Specialist Hospital said 12 corpses had been brought to the morgue. Another bomb was discovered and defused by police on Tuesday in Babalayi, a densely populated district of Maiduguri and about 500 meters from the scene of Thursday’s explosion, a member of the civilian joint taskforce said. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants attacked the town of Ngamdu in Borno State early on Tuesday, killing about a dozen people, witnesses and a security source said, reports Reuters. The town, which has been hit several times by militants, lies on the border of Borno and Yobe states. Ngamdu is about 100km (60 miles) east of Borno State capital, Maiduguri, and about 40km west from Yobe State capital, Damaturu, and lies near a road that is a major transport artery between the two states. A security source said the casualties and wounded were mainly bus and truck drivers. Around six drivers died, he said. A commercial driver, Mamman Abdullahi, said the insurgents came to Ngamdu at about 9:30a.m but were pursued by soldiers.

“They came back later on horse, shooting at people. Many were killed and some of our drivers were injured,” he said. Three drivers and some passengers were hit by bullets and being treated in a Maiduguri hospital, Abdullahi said. Five people were being treated for serious injuries after the attack at Maiduguri’s Umaru Shehu Hospital, a Reuters reporter said, but more were being treated for wounds in other locations. Vehicles on the road to Yobe were told to turn back due to the raid, bus driver Ali Sunoma, who was stopped at a military checkpoint, told Reuters

. This is the second time in a week that militants have hit towns along this road. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a checkpoint at Beneshiek on Saturday, witnesses and a member of the civilian joint task force working with the government said