At least 23 people were killed and 108 others wounded in a series of suspected suicide bombings in Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria’s volatile Borno state, police said Tuesday. The explosions occurred Monday evening, with authorities reporting one blast at a busy market, another at the gate of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), and a third near the post office.
State police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said preliminary inquiries indicate suspected suicide bombers carried out the attacks. He gave the toll of 23 dead and 108 people with varying degrees of injuries. Security forces cordoned off the affected areas and carried out searches to rule out further threats; Daso said “normalcy has been fully restored.” No group has claimed responsibility.
The bombings follow an overnight attack on a military post from Sunday to Monday that authorities blamed on suspected Islamist militants. Maiduguri lies at the center of a long-running jihadist insurgency in Borno state, where Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been active for nearly two decades. Their campaign has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions across Nigeria’s northeast.
Maiduguri had not experienced a major attack since 2021 until a few months ago, but a heavy security presence—frequent checkpoints and military patrols—remains a constant reminder of the conflict.