Nigerian market blast kills 47

A bomb attack on a packed market in northeastern Nigeria bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram killed around 50 people on Tuesday, sources said.

The explosion went off around 1:15 p.m.in Sabon Gari, located some 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of the state capital of Maiduguri.

No one claimed responsibility for yesterday’s blast.

The explosive device “was hidden in a bag used to disperse herbicides”.

Another AFP article pushed the death toll from the market attack up to 50, saying that two new bodies were recovered from the bushland, where they apparently died of their injuries after fleeing the market. The 6-year-old Islamic uprising has killed 20,000 people and spilled across Nigeria’s borders. Victims from the explosion were taken to Biu General Hospital.

“I have not heard of any individual called Mahamat Daoud”, said Dr Jonathan Hill, a reader in the Defence Studies Department at London’s King’s College, who monitors Boko Haram.

The president has vowed to crush the insurgency, announcing this past Friday that Nigeria would step up domestic arms manufacturing for its military.

The military has long argued that it is hampered by a lack of weaponry, and Buhari warned Washington last month that a US refusal to arm his troops because of “so-called human rights violations” was helping Boko Haram.

“According to sources in the area, this attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber who detonated her device”, said reporter Ahmed Idris, according to Al Jazeera.

At the same time, Nigerian officials said thousands have been blocked from travelling overseas in a bid to stop them becoming involved in foreign terrorism, prostitution or other criminal activity. “We have always had problems of Nigerians going overseas for greener pasture”, it added. “But there are a number of characters claiming to represent different factions within Boko Haram, and their bona fides are often hard to verify”.