24th March, 2014
Suspected Boko Haram militants detonated a bomb in a crowded marketplace in a village near Bama,Borno state, northeastern Nigeria killing at least 20 people, witnesses said on Sunday.
Nigerian security officials said the attack at Nguro-Soye bore the hallmarks of an attack by the al Qaeda-linked militant group Boko Haram, which is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of northeast Nigeria.
The deadly blast struck the busy marketplace late on Thursday in the remote village of Nguro-Soye, Borno state, injuring many more, said police chief Lawan Tanko.
“An explosion in the market in Nguro-Soye killed 17 people,” Tanko said, adding that police were investigating the source of the explosion.
“The attack on Nguro-Soye, as in previous attacks, is the handiwork of Boko Haram insurgents.”
Residents who fled the village to the state capital Maiduguri put the death toll at nearly 30, and said more people were hurt.
“They (attackers) fired RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) on the market and opened fire, killing 29 people,” said local trader Hamisu Ibrahim.
“Many people were injured in the attack and the stampede that followed,” said Ibrahim.
“I travelled to Bama …to buy bags of beans. Suddenly, there was a deafening bang at the middle of the market. It was in the late afternoon and commercial activities were at their peak,” said Shuaibu Abdulahi, a trader at the market. He estimated the death toll to be as high as 29.
Abba Tahir, a bus driver who was offloading passengers at the market, said he counted 20 bodies.
“People were helping in evacuating the corpses after the confusion had died down. Some people who were injured were taken to the general hospital,” Tahir said.
Deadly attacks blamed on the sect have intensified since the turn of the year, making it one of the bloodiest since the insurgency began in 2009.
So far in 2014 some 700 people have been killed in more than 40 incidents, according to Human Rights Watch.
A military crackdown since last May has failed to quell the insurgency, which after four and a half years remains the leading security threat to Africa’s top oil producer.
Borno state has ordered all of its schools to shut before the end of term to protect children after Islamists killed dozens of pupils in an attack last month, state officials said on Friday.