Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Friday, December 9, 2016

Madagali: Dozens killed in Nigeria suicide bomb blast


  • Dec 10, 2016  00H:13  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
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  • From the sectionAfrica
Map showing Madagali in north-east Nigeria
by Risa Abdullah and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Abuja, Nigeria
At least 45 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Madagali in Adamawa state, officials say.
Two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market, an army spokesman said.
No group has said it was behind the attack.
But Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been waging a seven-year insurgency against the government and often uses suicide attacks.
At least 33 people were wounded in the bombing, said Sa'ad Bello, of the National Emergency Management Agency.
The two bombers, who were "disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grain and second-hand clothing," local government official Yusuf Muhammad told AFP.
Madagali was recaptured from Boko Haram in 2015 and has been the target of previous suicide attacks.
Scene of an explosion in a mobile phone market in Potiskum, Nigeria, Monday Jan. 12, 2015. Two female suicide bombers targeted the busy marketplace on Sunday.Image copyrightAP
Image captionBoko Haram used female suicide bombers in a similar attack in north-eastern Nigeria last year
A regional force has retaken most territory under the group's control in the past 22 months.
But as it advances into areas previously controlled by the Islamists, the army has found tens of thousands of civilians on the brink of starvation.
The number of people facing starvation in the north-east of Nigeria is as high as 120,000, of which 75,000 are children, the UN warned earlier this month.
More than two million people have been forced from their homes as a result of the Islamist insurgency.

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