Maiduguri, Nigeria — At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 injured in suspected suicide bombings that targeted the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Monday night, police said on Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the conflict-torn city in recent history.
Residents and emergency services earlier told The Associated Press that three blasts were reported in densely populated areas in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, including a major market and the entrance to the University of Maiduguri teaching hospital.
“Unfortunately, a total of 23 people lost their lives, while 108 people sustained various degrees of injuries,” Borno police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement, blaming the attack on suspected suicide bombers.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Boko Haram jihadist group, which launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 to enforce their radical interpretation of Sharia.
Boko Haram has since grown stronger with thousands of fighters and various factions, including the Islamic State West Africa region, which is backed by the Islamic State group.
The city of Maiduguri has been at the heart of deadly violence but in recent years has enjoyed relative peace even though the countryside has often been battered by militants.
Residents described the chaos that followed the blast. “This attack is the deadliest in Maiduguri in years,” said Mohammad Hasan, a member of a volunteer group that helps security forces fight militants. “We need blood,” he said of the situation hours after the attack.
Militants have intensified their attacks against Nigerian military bases, killing several senior officers and soldiers and depriving the bases of arms and ammunition stockpiles.
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