Dozens killed, 100 wounded in Nigeria suicide attacks
Suspected terrorist attacks shatter a period of relative calm, signalling a resurgence of violence in an area once seen as stabilising.
Multiple explosions staged by suspected suicide bombers rocked the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, police said on Tuesday.
“Preliminary investigation reveals that the incidents were carried out by suspected suicide bombers,” police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement.
“Regrettably, a total of twenty three (23) persons lost their lives, while one hundred and eight (108) others sustained varying degrees of injuries,” he added.
The blasts, which struck on Monday evening, came after an attack on a military post overnight Sunday to Monday, which authories blamed on suspected terrorists.
Combined with the attack on the military position the evening prior and a mosque bombing in December, the assaults have wrecked a peaceful stretch in the city, which had become a relative oasis of calm as Nigeria’s long-running insurgency was pushed to the rural hinterlands.
Attacks intensify
Terrorists from Boko Haram and rival terror group Daesh in West Africa (ISWAP) have recently stepped up attacks in northeastern Nigeria.
Their 16-year terror campaign in the country has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million.
An AFP reporter at a city hospital on Monday evening saw dozens of wounded people seeking treatment from Monday’s blasts, as well as multiple bodies covered by sheets on the sidewalk outside.
Police said in the early Tuesday morning statement that “normalcy has been fully restored in the affected areas” and that security forces have increased their “presence and surveillance across Maiduguri and its environs to prevent any further occurrences”.
