The explosion came a day after another suicide bomber blew himself up at a church in the city of Potiskum, Yobe state, killing five people and a twin attack in the central city of Jos that killed 44.
Advertisement
BBC News reports that attacks occurred daily as 48 men were shot to death nearby Monguno on Tuesday and 97 villagers in Kukawa were killed on Wednesday.
Boko Haram’s resumption of guerrilla-style tactics against “soft” civilian targets follows its capture of territory across the northeast past year.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had condemned last week’s attacks as “inhuman and barbaric”. In the most deadly, more than 140 people were killed, majority men and boys, as they prayed in mosques in north-eastern Kukawa town on Wednesday.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, said 15 people were also injured in the attack. Unidentified attackers opened fire outside with guns before launching a rocket-propelled grenade at the mosque, witnesses said. Yahaya was unharmed, Sani added.
Another bomb exploded at Shagalinku, a restaurant patronized by state governors and other elite politicians seeking specialties from Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
Sabi’u Bako was picking up a takeout meal when he heard a massive explosion as he walked away with friends.
“We are trying to move from one hospital to another to determine how many have died”, he said. “We can’t believe that we escaped”, said Sabi’u Bako, a survivor of the attack.
A series of blasts, some of them targeting places of worship, has killed scores of people in Nigeria, where the military is battling the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
Advertisement
Three days prior, Muslim extremists also ravaged northeastern Nigerian villages, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, according to Stephen Apagu, chairman of a self-defense group in Borno state’s Askira-Uba local government area. “For years, the Christian population of north Nigeria has faced a devastating offensive by Islamic militants that has yet to be effectively countered”, said Cameron Thomas, global Christian Concern regional manager for Africa.
