An explosive went off at a market in northeastern Nigeria this Wednesday killing at least 32 people and injuring over 80, according to various reports.
“Thirty-two people were killed and 80 have been injured,” Reuters quoted a Red Cross official as confirming.
Bombs exploded in Yola, many Nigerians are dead. Dear World pray for us #Nigeria
— Zoe Dorren AkwaUgo (@Dorren06)
November 17, 2015
So are we changing our profile pictures green & white to show solidarity with the people of Nigeria or nah? #Yola pic.twitter.com/5yvfs1Kzzq
— D (@Delo_Taylor)
November 17, 2015
Meanwhile let's pray for Nigeria. A bomb went off earlier in Yola today. It is not only Paris, Nigerian lives matter too.
— The Godfather (@Ayourb)
November 17, 2015
An official from the National Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Sa'ad Bello, later confirmed the same numbers of casualties.
No group or person has yet claimed the attack, but authorities suspect extremist group Boko Haram is responsible as they have carried out similar attacks in the same city, Yola, in the past.
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“The explosion happened in the midst of a large crowd because the area houses a livestock market, an open-air eatery and a mosque,” Agence-France Presse quoted Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano as saying. “Our main concern now is to save the injured.”
A witness described the horrific incident to Reuters: “The ground near my shop was covered with dead bodies. I helped to load 32 dead bodies into five vehicles.”
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A second witness told the British news agency there were up to eight ambulances on the scene to rush the victims to hospitals.
Boko Haram has pledged its alliance to the Islamic State group and have killed about 17,000 of people in Nigeria over the last six years.
In October, Boko Haram militants attacked Yola and Maidugiri in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 37 people.
President Muhammadu Buhari was in Yola last Friday, according to Al Jazeera. He was there to decorate soldiers for their courage in the fight against Boko Haram.
Buhari told troops he believed Boko Haram "are very close to defeat," Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.
On Tuesday, the Global Terrorism Index released a report revealing an increase of 80 percent in terrorism in 2014 that left 32,658 people dead.
And despite indicating that Boko Haram is responsible for more deaths overall than Islamic State group, they said that the two extremist groups combined are responsible for 51 percent of claimed world killings last year.
Nigeria registered the biggest increase in one year. They said that from 2013 to 2014, deaths due to Boko Haram attacks increased by 300 percent to 7,512.
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