KANO: At least 47 people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb blast on Tuesday in a part of northeast Nigeria frequently targeted by Boko Haram militants, a medical source and witnesses said.

The explosion ripped through the weekly market in the village of Sabon Gari, around 135 kilometres south of Borno state capital Maiduguri, during peak trading around 1:15 pm, the sources said.

“We have received at least 47 dead bodies and at least 50 with injuries from the Sabon Gari market, where there was a blast this afternoon,” a nurse at Biu General Hospital, around 50kms away, said.

He said the injuries from the blast are mostly “severe”, meaning the death toll could continue to rise.

“The explosion happened inside the market at the mobile phone section, near the livestock section of the market,” said Yuram Bura, a member of a local vigilante group fighting Boko Haram alongside the army.

“It was concealed in a knapsack used for spraying herbicides. It was smuggled into the market and apparently abandoned.” Witnesses said the blast bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has previously targeted crowded bus stations, markets, mosques and churches during its bloody six-year insurgency.

“Following the explosion everybody fled the market because of fear of more explosions. However, vigilantes and volunteers went to the scene and were able to evacuate the victims,” Samaila Biu, a local trader, said.

The attack came two days after militants shot dead four people and abducted five others in an ambush on a highway in the same area on Sunday, according to local vigilantes.

Gunmen suspected to be from Boko Haram also killed eight people at the end of July in a raid on a village near Biu, the biggest town in southern Borno, the state which has borne the brunt of the insurgency.

Boko Haram has killed more than 15,000 people since 2009 and has increasingly spread across the country’s borders, with Chad and Cameroon suffering deadly suicide bombings in recent months.

Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger launched a joint military fightback this year, with Benin set to join a new multi-national force due to go into action shortly.

Boko Haram has increased the frequency and intensity of its attacks since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29. Since then, more than 900 people have been killed in Nigeria alone, according to a count.

Buhari has vowed to crush the insurgency, which has made more than 1.5 million homeless since 2009.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2015

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