Bomb attack at Nigerian market kills 47

The explosion ripped through the weekly market in the village of Sabon Gari, around 135 kilometers (85 miles) south of Borno state capital Maiduguri, during peak trading time.

"We have received at least 47 dead bodies, and at least 50 with injuries," a nurse at a nearby hospital said, adding that the death toll could rise because the latter were "severely injured."

According to one eyewitness, the attack was perpetrated by Boko Haram, although on Tuesday evening nobody had claimed responsibility.

"The explosion happened inside the market at the mobile phone section, near the livestock section of the market," said Yuram Bura, a member of a local vigilante group fighting Boko Haram alongside the army.

"It was concealed in a knapsack used for spraying herbicides. It was smuggled into the market and apparently abandoned."

Other witnesses said the explosion was characteristic of Boko Haram, which has previously targeted crowded bus stations, markets, mosques and churches during its insurgency over the past six years in northeastern Nigeria.

The fight against terror

The attack came two days after suspected jihadists shot dead four people and abducted five others in an ambush on a highway nearby, according to locals. Gunmen also suspected of belonging to Boko Haram killed eight people at the end of July in a raid on a village near Biu, the biggest town in southern Borno, the state which has borne the brunt of the insurgency.

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 attacks in Borno since Muhammadu Buhari was elected president at the end of May. Since then, more than 900 people have been killed in Nigeria alone (according to statistics compiled by the AFP news agency).

The president has vowed to crush the insurgency, announcing this past Friday that Nigeria would step up domestic arms manufacturing for its military.

Buhari, formerly a general, reportedly ordered the defense ministry to create "a modest military industrial complex for the local production of weapons to meet some of the requirements of the country's armed forces," his office said in a statement.

glb/bw (Reuters, AFP)