SAN FRANCISCO, July 01, (THEWILL) – A car wired with explosives Tuesday morning exploded in a Maiduguri market killing many people and wounding several others, according to reports.
The bombs, which went off at around 8.13am, were hidden inside a pick up van carrying charcoal.
A trader at the market told the Associated Press that the market opened at 8.am.
The blast occurred barely 4 days into the fasting month of Ramadan when Muslims fast daily until sunset.
The BBC reports that at least 18 persons were killed during the attack believed to have been carried out by the Boko Haram, a violent Islamic terrorist group that says it is against western education.
69 persons were wounded in the attack.
Most traders that came from far and near as well as the youth vigilante group popularly called Civilian JTF in the area were caught unaware by the early morning explosion as the Civilian JTF were said to have lost nine of its members.
Explaining how the members of the youth vigilante group were caught in the melee, the chairman Sector 3 of the Civilian JTF, Iliya Saidu, told THEWILL that the vehicle carrying the IEDs shattered the mirror of a commercial motorcycle thus causing a quarrel that attracted the attention of several of his men.
He explained that it was during mediation by his men who also assisted to push the vehicle off the road that the suicide bomber detonated the explosives.
“Nine of my members were killed by the blast. We were able to identify them through the vest we gave them and we have already deposited their corpses at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and the State Specialist Hospital,” he said.
Also speaking on the attack, he confirmed to THEWILL that the explosives were packed inside a Peugeot 505 sedan loaded with charcoal, disclosing that more than 50 persons were killed in the incident.
The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, who visited the scene of the explosion, condemned the attack, describing it as un-Islamic, barbaric and inhuman.
Briefing the governor at the scene of the incident, the Manager Maiduguri Monday market, Alhaji Bukar Jere, said 15 Civilian JTF members were among those killed in the blast, while 69 persons were injured.
He also told the governor that four vehicles and four tri-cycles were burnt in the blast, saying the incident also affected 49 shops and wares displayed by some petty traders at the road side.
Shettima however expressed gratitude to the Civilian JTF for their gallantry as he promised to pay N1 million to each family of the JTF members who lost their lives in the incident.
The governor also visited those injured in the explosion at the Umaru Shehu Hospital and Maiduguri Specialist Hospitals where they were receiving treatment.
He directed the state Commissioner for Health to ensure that they were given all the necessary care, assuring that the government would foot all their bills.
