Blast kills around 50 in Nigeria’s Borno state

At least 47 people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb blast Tuesday in a part of northeast Nigeria frequently targeted by Boko Haram Islamists, a medical source and witnesses said. The explosion ripped through the weekly market in the village of Sabon Gari, around 135 kilometres (85 miles) south of Borno state capital Maiduguri, during peak trading around 1:15 pm (1230 GMT), the sources said. Witnesses said the blast bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has previously targeted crowded bus stations, markets, mosques and churches during its bloody six-year insurgency.

So far, 52 people are injured, 47 dead persons have been removed from the market.

President Muhammadu Buhari

Boko Haram has killed more than 15,000 people since 2009 and has increasingly spread across the country’s borders, with Chad and Cameroon suffering deadly suicide bombings in recent months. The group has increased the frequency and intensity of its attacks since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29. Since then, more than 900 people have been killed in Nigeria alone. Buhari has vowed to crush the insurgency, which has made more than 1.5 million homeless since 2009. He announced on Friday that Nigeria would step up domestic arms manufacture for the military to cut its reliance on foreign weaponry in its fight with the Islamists. The US has vowed to help Nigeria defeat the insurgency but it is prohibited under law from sending weapons to countries that fail to tackle human rights abuses.

We will defeat Boko Haram by the end of this year

President Muhammadu Buhari

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