Two bomb attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants killed more than 50 people at a market in Gombe, in northeast Nigeria, on Thursday, a Red Cross official said.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which went off around 5.30pm (1630 GMT), but they bear the hallmarks of attacks by Boko Haram. The militant Islamists have killed thousands in a six-year insurgency in the country’s northeast.
An eyewitness, Malam Ibrahim Mohammed, an orange seller, told newsmen that the bomb exploded at exactly 5.20 pm, and just a few meters away from the scene, another bomb exploded.
According to him, the number of dead bodies he saw are between 47 to 50 apart from mutilated parts of human bodies.
“I have 30 bodies in bags and I am sure there are more out there,” said the Red Cross official, who was involved in the evacuation and wanted to remain anonymous.
An official from the National Emergency Management Agency also confirmed that the attacks had taken place and many people were hurt.
President Muhammadu Buhari has made crushing the insurgents his top priority, but hundreds have been killed in bombings and shootings since he was inaugurated on May 29.
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