MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) – Twin car bombs at a bustling city marketplace blasted buildings to rubble and tore apart bodies the same night an attack on a farming village razed every thatched-roof hut.
At least 90 people have been killed, officials and survivors reported today, as Nigeria’s Islamic extremists step up attacks and criticism mounts of the failure of the military and government to suppress the four-year-old Islamic uprising in the northeast.
In Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and birthplace of the Boko Haram terrorist network, the attackers chose a densely populated area with narrow alleyways that maximised the blasts and a Saturday night when the market was open late.
The victims include children dancing at a wedding celebration and people watching a soccer match at a cinema, survivors told The Associated Press.
Fifty-one bodies were retrieved by this morning but many more are believed buried in rubble, said a Red Cross official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. Some were burned beyond recognition in fires caused by the explosions.
In a village 60 kilometres (40 miles) away, suspected extremists also struck last night, killing 39 people, according to cab driver Mansur Buba.
He said he returned home today to find victims being buried in Mainok village, which has been attacked many times in the past year. A State Security Service agent said no huts were left standing there. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to reporters.
In Maiduguri, the headquarters of the army and air force offensive against Boko Haram, the first bomb came from a pickup truck loaded with firewood, said Hassan Ali, the leader of an anti-terror vigilante group.
Many more people were killed in the second blast, which was timed to catch people who rushed to the aid of those wounded in the first explosion, survivors said.
Survivors said they captured a man who drove the second car to the scene, jumped out, grabbed a tricycle taxi and tried to make off. He was badly beaten and taken to nearby Umaru Shehu General Hospital, where a security guard said all the wounded brought in had died. Most survivors insisted on anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Some bodies were blown apart, said market trader Mallam Sumaila. An Associated Press reporter saw a charred corpse at Umaru Shehu hospital, where wailing families were collecting bodies for immediate burial, in the Muslim tradition.
It was not known how many wounded are being treated in three hospitals in the city.