(MENAFN- Arab Times) A bomb exploded in the main market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Yola killing 31 people, Nigeria's disaster response agency said Friday, in an attack blamed on the extremist Boko Haram group. Another 38 victims, some with serious injuries, are being treated in the hospitals in this city already swollen with refugees from the conflict, Sa'ad Bello of the National Emergency Management Agency told The Associated Press. "I can see blood splattered everywhere, including my car, but I can't give any detail because we are all running," bread seller Ayuba Dan Mallam said shortly after the blast.
The explosion was timed to go off as merchants were closing shop, others were hurrying to make last-minute purchases and commuters were catching tricycle taxis home. The local government has blamed the attack on the extremist Boko Haram movement which has been fighting for the last six years to impose Islamic law in the northeast. The Yola blast followed a suspected suicide bombing in Maiduguri, capital of neighbouring Borno state, that killed at least four people when a truck carrying firewood rammed into a checkpoint outside a military barracks. The violence on Thursday came as Buhari ended his first foreign trip since taking office.
He visited Chad and Niger, which with Cameroon are Nigeria's key allies in the battle against an Islamist uprising blamed for 15,000 deaths since 2009. Buhari urged closer regional security cooperation, thanking troops from Nigeria's neighbours for their efforts to date while demanding more action from a multi-national force battling the insurgents on the frontline. He vowed to crush the Islamists when he was sworn in one week ago but the spate of bombings through his first week in office highlighted the severity of the challenge.
Boko Haram has been weakened by a four-nation offensive launched in February but the extremists have proved resilient in the past. A new video released by the group - its first for several months and first under the banner of the "Islamic State in West Africa" - insisted the rebels were still to be reckoned with. Yola had been seen as a relative safe haven in Nigeria's embattled northeast, with no confirmed Islamist attacks in several years.
The fresh explosion hit the popular Jimeta Main Market at about 7:40 pm (1840 GMT), as traders were finishing business. "So far, we have 31 dead victims and 38 people in hospital receiving treatment", the National Emergency Management Agency's coordinator in the city Sa'ad Bello told AFP. An inital toll from the Adamawa state police said two people were killed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the blast bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram who have frequently targeted crowded markets.
The Maiduguri explosion outside the Maimalari Barracks at about 5:00 pm killed four people and also resembled past strikes by the insurgents, who have made suicide attacks the military a key feature of their uprising. Buhari was on Thursday in Chad's capital, N'Djamena, for talks with his counterpart Idriss Deby after visiting Niger on Wednesday. "Your troops have stood shoulder to shoulder and fought gallantly with ours in the fight against the forces of evil," the 72-year-old former military ruler told Deby.
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