At least 54 people killed in bomb blasts in Nigeria

Maiduguri: At least 54 people were killed and 90 wounded in a multiple bomb attack in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in Borno state yesterday evening, a police spokesman said today.

The state’s Police Public Relation Officer, Victor Isuku, who confirmed the incidents, told journalists in Maiduguri that the attacks bore the hallmark of Boko Haram insurgents.

Military spokesman, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, who disclosed the explosions, added, “the attacks signify [a] high level of desperation on the part of the Boko Haram terrorists”.

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram denied claims by the authorities of winning the six-year war against insurgency after the army said it was pushing “for the final defeat”, of the militants, Bloomberg reports. They were pushed out by Nigerian troops with the help of Chad, Cameroon and Niger after the abduction of over two hundred girls from a school in northern Nigeria sparked an worldwide campaign.

The attacks have forced many residents to flee for safety.

“Each of these children running for their lives is a childhood cut short”, said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa, in a statement. Shekau accuses Buhari and the military of lying about their progress: “They [the military] lied that they have confiscated our arms, that we have been chased out of our territories, that we are in disarray”. Before we could make out what was happening, the third one went off again. “They are now combing all known terrorist enclaves within the Bama, Banki and Pulka areas”.

The Twitter feed of the jihad-monitoring Site Intelligence said the Hausa language audio message was released by Shekau on Saturday, but this has not been verified elsewhere.

“I saw the corpses with my own eyes”. He also lambasted Buhari’s recent “deal with French President, Francois Hollande”.

Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect have struck in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, leaving an unspecified number of people dead.