Death toll of Tuesday’s blast in a livestock market in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, capital of the restive Borno State, has risen to 31, hospital sources said Wednesday.
The bomb which was concealed under a butcher’s table in the market went off at around 1pm local time, killing shoppers and travellers, a military source said.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the latest explosion, which follows two bomb attacks over the weekend that killed at least 30 people and bore the hallmarks of militant group Boko Haram.
Eleven out of the 31 corpses evacuated at the scene of the blast were taken to Borno State Specialists Hospital, a state-run health facility, a medical staff said, adding at least 25 injured were rushed to the place for treatment.
Boko Haram released an online video on Tuesday, rejecting claims from Nigeria’s military that it has been routed by a four-nation offensive.
The unidentified speaker called Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, who have been battling the militants, “the lying coalition partners”.
“Most of our territory is still under our control,” said the speaker, whose face was not shown in the 10-minute message posted on YouTube.
