Bomb blast hits Bauchi market

An explosion shook a busy market in Bauchi on Monday, engulfing it in flames and causing an unknown numbers of casualties, witnesses have said.

Large sections of the central market area were on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the air, he said. Medics were driving some wounded away in ambulances.

The explosion hit hours after a double bomb attack in the main city of neighbouring Gombe state killed at least 20 people  and wounded 40.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the city of Gombe. Boko Haram insurgents have repeatedly set off bombs targeting civilians, especially in the northeast where they are trying to carve out an Islamic state.

“The second blast was worse than the first one because many people rushed to the scene and were affected. Many were killed and many injured,” witness Mohammed Fawu told Reuters by phone.

Setting off twin bombs is a classic guerrilla tactic which seeks to maximize casualties.

Hours later, an explosion shook a busy market in the north Nigerian city of Bauchi on Monday, engulfing it in flames and causing an unknown numbers of casualties, a Reuters witness said. Large sections of the central market area were on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the air.

Medics were driving some wounded away in ambulances. Bauchi state and Gombe state are next door to each other.

The official from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), who declined to be named, said 20 were confirmed dead so far and that 40 wounded were currently being treated.

The blast had been caused by bombs but it was not yet known whether a suicide bomber was involved.

“I watched as the corpses were being evacuated by the police. They all died in the buses,” said Hadiza Suleiman, an undergraduate student, adding that she had seen 20 bodies.

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Violence in the northeast is killing civilians on a daily basis — about 10,340 this year, according to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

It was the second such attack on Gombe’s public transport system in as many months. At the end of October, a car bomb at a bus stop killed at least 10 people.

The campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sinful,” has become the gravest security threat to Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest economy, most populous nation and top oil producer.

The killings and abductions raise questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians, especially around the Cameroon border in the north.

Cameroon said on Monday it had dismantled a Boko Haram training camp, arresting or killing dozens of militants and rescuing 84 children being trained there.

Reuters