At least 23 people have been killed and more than 100 injured following suspected suicide bombings that targeted Maiduguri city in north-eastern Nigeria.
Residents and emergency services told the Associated Press that three explosions were reported in crowded places in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, including in a major market and at the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
“Regrettably, a total of 23 persons lost their lives, while 108 others sustained varying degrees of injuries,” Borno police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement that blamed the attacks on suspected suicide bombers.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but the blame quickly fell on the Boko Haram jihadi group, which in 2009 launched an insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria to enforce their radical interpretation of Shariah law.
Boko Haram has since become stronger, with thousands of fighters and different factions, including the Islamic State West Africa Province, which is backed by the so-called Islamic State group.
Maiduguri city has been at the heart of the deadly violence but has in recent years experienced relative peace even as the countryside is often battered by extremists.
Residents recounted the chaos that followed the explosions. “This attack’s been one of the deadliest in Maiduguri in years,” said Mohammed Hassan, a member of a volunteer group assisting security forces in fighting extremists.
The extremists have intensified their attacks against Nigerian military bases, killing several senior officers and soldiers, and stripping the bases of stocks of weaponry and ammunition.