31 Dead as Double Bombing Rocks Nigeria City
At least 31 people were killed in a double bombing in the Nigerian city of Jos on Thursday.
The blasts in Jos happened at a makeshift market near the Terminus bus station, which had been set up after a twin car bomb attack in May that left at least 118 people dead.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the city, said the scene of the attack was a densely populated area.
"The bodies recovered so far are 31 but rescue workers are at the scene and the figures may change," added Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the Plateau state governor Jonah Jang.
The city, which is the capital of Plateau, lies in Nigeria's "Middle Belt" where the mainly Muslim north meets the mostly Christian south.
It has been targeted by Boko Haram Islamists in the past but is also a hotbed of ethnic and sectarian tensions that frequently boil over into deadly violence.
Boko Haram has increasingly used women as suicide bombers in attacks ranging from Borno state in the far northeast to Niger to the northwest.
Just last month, at least 120 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at Kano's central mosque and gunmen opened fire on worshipers as they fled.
Security analysts have seen the use of women -- whether voluntarily and ideologically motivated or coerced -- as a sign that Boko Haram wants to sow fear and terror further afield.
In July, a 10-year-old girl was discovered wearing a suicide vest in Katsina state, also in the north.
President Goodluck Jonathan, accepting his party's nomination to run for re-election on Wednesday night, said the military was making some gains in the fight against the militants.
The military has reported the seizure of several towns captured in recent months and also successful operations that have left dozens of Islamist fighters dead.
But in a sign of the scale of the task -- and the need to provide better security everywhere in the remote region -- a local government official said 11 people were killed by gunmen in the town of Gajiganna in Borno state.
"The terrorists also injured (several) people and set on fire every single house in the village," said Zarami Kolo.
Gajiganna has large markets that attract traders from across Borno state as well as from neighboring Chad and Cameroon.
Source: Agence France Presse
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