Many were reported killed at a Mosque in Maiduguri Thursday night, when two suicide bombers disguised as worshippers blew themselves at the worship centre.
The blasts occurred around 6:30pm (1730 GMT) in Molai, in the western suburbs of Maiduguri, where worshippers had gathered for evening prayers, the witnesses said.
Reports indicate that as many as 42 persons are feared dead in the attack, which details were still sketchy at the time of this report.
Thursday’s explosion came a day after the Army confirmed “that there were triple suspected human borne improvised explosive device explosion on Tuesday evening at Ajilari, Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Borno State.
According to the Army Headquarters,”The explosives occurred at 3 minutes intervals and 7 people were confirmed dead, including the 3 suicide terrorists, while 11 others sustained various degrees of injuries.”
There were other reported cases of suicide bomb explosions in Maiduguri town in which several lives were lost.
There was no official statement on Thursday night’s blast at the time of filing this story.
But accounts indicate that the attack by the two suicide bombers was carefully executed to inflict maximum casualty.
A report cites Muhtari Ahmadu, a trader near, as saying that “All the people in the mosque died. Not a single one escaped.”
According to Amadu Marte, a vigilante supporting the security forces in the fight against the Islamist Boko Haram group, he counted more than 42 dead bodies outside the mosque.
The police in the state confirmed the incident, but have a lower casualty number about 14 deaths.
The police in their statement said the mosque collapsed from the impact of the explosions and injured “many people praying”.
“Casualties have been evacuated to UMTH (University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital) and specialist hospitals in Maiduguri,” it added.
By the accounts of witnesses, one of the attackers set off the first blast when he entered the mosque, while the second one detonated his lethal weapon soon after, when many had rushed to the scene to help the first victims.
“When rescuers and sympathizers gathered in front of the place, the second one went off, killing many of them,” Marte said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion fell on Boko Haram, which was founded in Borno’s state capital Maiduguri in 2009.
The city has been hit repeatedly since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29 with a vow to crush the insurgency.
Nigeria’s military has claimed a series of successes in recent months and has characterised the upsurge in attacks on civilian targets as desperation on the part of the Islamic State group-allied militants.