Blast at Nigerian market kills more than 30, Boko Haram suspected

More than 30 people were killed Tuesday when a bomb blast ripped through packed crowds in Yola, northeast Nigeria, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari visited declaring that Boko Haram were close to defeat. Although it was not immediately clear whether it was caused by a suicide bomber or an improvised explosive device, the blast bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram. The Red Cross said the area targeted was a lorry park which also houses a livestock market, an open-air restaurant and a mosque. The area was immediately cordoned off but poor power supply in Yola meant the rescue effort was conducted in near darkness.

Victims could be lying all over the place.

Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano

This month Buhari was in Yola to decorate soldiers for bravery in the counter-insurgency against Boko Haram. Tuesday’s blast was the first in Nigeria this month, indicating the army’s strategy to cut off the Islamists’ supply lines and target their camps was paying off. But the Yola explosion also shows the difficulty in completely neutralising the threat, particularly in crowded urban areas. Buhari has set his military commanders a deadline of the end of next month to crush the rebels.