A bomb blast killed at least 24 people in northeastern Nigeria and hundreds of fighters invaded a town across the border in Cameroon in attacks Tuesday that witnesses and officials blame on Boko Haram’s Islamic extremists.
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According to one eyewitness, the attack was perpetrated by Boko Haram, although on Tuesday evening nobody had claimed responsibility.
The explosive device “was hidden in a bag used to disperse herbicides”.
Another AFP article pushed the death toll from the market attack up to 50, saying that two new bodies were recovered from the bushland, where they apparently died of their injuries after fleeing the market.
Timothy Ibrahim, a resident, who stays around the area, has said that “because the gunshots went on for about 30 minutes, we thought that the town was under attack”.
Borno State Police Commissioner, Mr Aderemi Opadokun, who confirmed the incident to newsmen in Maiduguri without giving the exact casualty figure, said the injured victims had been evacuated to Biu General Hospital for treatment. On Sunday, Boko Haram militants also shot four individuals and abducted five.
Deby whose troops have been involved in battling Boko Haram said Daoud was open to dialogue. The 6-year-old Islamic uprising has killed 20,000 people and spilled across Nigeria’s borders.
Abubakar Shekau, the head of the Boko Haram Islamist group that kidnapped more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls previous year, has been ousted as its leader, it has been claimed.
Mr Buhari visited Benin last week, which said it will contribute 800 troops to a regional military force combating Boko Haram.
The president has vowed to crush the insurgency, announcing this past Friday that Nigeria would step up domestic arms manufacturing for its military.
“There have been reports in recent times of some Nigerians departing to join terrorist groups especially in the Middle East and north Africa”, said NIS spokesman Chukwuemeka Obua.
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The crackdown sought to prevent young Nigerians being “lured into terrorism, prostitution, slavery and other untoward activities abroad”, the NIS said in a statement.
