At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in a series of suspected suicide bombings in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s restive Borno state, police said Tuesday.
The blasts occurred Monday evening, with authorities saying one explosion struck a busy market, another hit the gate of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), and a third detonated near the post office. State police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said preliminary investigations indicate the incidents were carried out by suspected suicide bombers. He gave a toll of 23 dead and 108 people with varying degrees of injuries.
Security forces deployed to the affected areas have cordoned them off and carried out searches to rule out further threats, Daso added, saying “normalcy has been fully restored.” No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The bombings follow an overnight attack on a military post from Sunday to Monday that authorities blamed on suspected Islamist militants. Maiduguri sits at the center of a long-running jihadist insurgency in Borno state, where groups such as Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been active for nearly two decades. Their campaign to carve out a caliphate has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in Nigeria’s northeast.
Until a few months ago, Maiduguri had not suffered a major attack since 2021, but the security presence in the city—frequent checkpoints and military patrols—remains a constant reminder of the conflict. Maiduguri had not seen such violence in years (AFP).
Edited by: Karl Sexton
