At least 12 lifeless bodies have been found at a local market in Damaturu city of Nigeria’s northeastern Yobe State after a loud blast rocked the place on Sunday, witnesses said.
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The town is the capital of Yobe state which, along with the other northeastern states of Borno and Adamawa, has been the worst hit by Boko Haram’s bloody campaign for a hardline Islamic caliphate, which has left 15,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless since 2009.
The attack was said to have been carried out by a female suicide bomber.
The police spokesperson said that suicide bombers used mortars similar to those recovered from suspected bombers on the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway on Monday.
According to eyewitnesses, the explosion occurred at around 9.30 a.m.
“We have received 15 dead bodies and 47 people with injuries from the market blast site”.
And earlier this month at least 50 people were killed in the city by a female suicide bomber as worshippers gathered to mark the Muslim holiday Eid el-Fitr.
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“The woman who was injured by the gunshot fired at her later confessed to the security operatives that they were three in number sent by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on a mission to detonate the bombs”, Bukar Saliu a trader at the market, said.
