Saudi- Twin bombing kills 45 in Nigeria Boko Haram seizes another town

(MENAFN- Arab News) MAIDUGURI Nigeria: More than 45 people died Tuesday in twin bomb blasts including one by a female suicide bomber at a packed market in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

The explosions in the Borno state capital targeted the same Monday Market area where at least 15 people died July 1 in blast blamed on the Boko Haram militant group.

Tuesday's attack came after the militants seized control of another town in Nigeria's restive northeast.

Health worker Dogara Shehu said he counted more than '45 people killed some of them completely decapitated' in the Maiduguri blasts in an account supported by another witness.

An official with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that 'many people have been killed' but did not have an official death toll.

One senior police officer who requested anonymity described the explosion which happened at about 11:00 a.m. (1000 GMT) as a 'powerful bomb' which was felt across the city.

Market trader Usman Babaji said the explosives were hidden in a motorized three-wheeled rickshaw which are popular throughout the country.

A second explosion followed moments later as people rushed to the scene of the first bombing to help the injured witnesses said.

Abubakar Bello who sells chickens near the scene said the woman was carrying explosives in a wrapper on her back in the same way that babies are carried.

'She manoeuvered her way to the scene of the earlier explosion' he said in an account supported by three others.

'I think it was a deliberate plan to inflict much pain on unsuspecting people because the second explosion went off after many people gathered at the scene of the first one.'

Boko Haram will likely be blamed for the blasts given that it has attacked Maiduguri dozens of times during its five-year fight to create a hard-line Islamist state in northern Nigeria.

The militant group was founded in Maiduguri more than a decade ago and the city was once the epicenter of the conflict until its fighters were pushed out into more rural parts of the northeast.

Since May 2013 when a state of emergency was imposed in Borno and two neighboring states violence has increased in the countryside killing thousands and forcing many more to flee.

Boko Haram had earlier taken over the town of Damasak in the far north of Borno near the border with neighboring Niger starting their assault with an attack on the market there early Monday.

Maina Ma'aji Lawan who represents northern Borno state in Nigeria's Senate said soldiers and hundreds of residents fled when the heavily armed militants opened fire on traders.

'There is not a single male in Damasak. Boko Haram is in control because all males and soldiers have fled. No one expects women to fight them' Lawan told AFP by telephone from Abuja.

A senior security source in Maiduguri and a senior local government official both corroborated Lawan's account although it was still unclear how many were killed in the attack.