Twin Explosions Rock Maiduguri Mosque
A suburb known as Mulai in Maiduguri capital city of Borno state at about 6.20pm on Thursday, October 15, was greeted with the echo of two deadly explosions sending residents of the area scampering for safety, Premium Times reports.
Civilian Joint Task Force representatives, who took part in the evacuation of the dead bodies from the scene of the twin suicide bombings in Maiduguri, informed the press that at least 26 people were killed on the spot when the suicide bombers detonated their devices in a mosque in the suburb of Borno state capital.
They also told that twenty five people were injured, some of them critically. Earlier another witness at the scene said he had counted at least 42 bodies after the blasts and nobody survived the terrorist attack. Possibly some of them were those badly wounded but still alive. The officials told that those injured were rushed to the hospital.
Residents who witnessed the suicide bombings told that, “male suicide bombers detonated multiple improvised explosive devices in different locations while over thirty Muslims were in one of the mosque at Molai outskirts of Maiduguri metropolis observing their Magrib prayer around 6.10 pm Thursday evening”.
“We started running up and down, motorists drived and rushed out of the area including keke NAPEP riders with their families , everywhere was confused and panic took over the entire place," said one of the witnesses, adding that “you need to see how residents were running, some even had to park their belongings and leave the area tensed and confused as nobody knows what will happen next."
Although the details of the casualties could not be immediately ascertained, but a senior official of the civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) who preferred to remain anonymous in the cause of this report confirmed that the two blasts happened near a mosque in Mulai, some six kilometres away from Maiduguri town along the Maiduguri-Biu highways.
He said: “We have two bomb explosions this evening in Mulai near a mosque there.”
“The bombings happened during prayer time. One cannot immediately give details of the incident but I have sent my boys over there and am still waiting for their report from the scene.”
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Premium Times reports however that an unconfirmed report from another official of the civilian JTF, Bamusa, stated that the blasts happened in a mosque during Magrib prayer and unspecified number of people were killed.
Bamusa said that he had nine injured persons in his trucks at that instant and that he was heading for the hospital to get them treated due to the fact that the injured persons were in bad shape.
The explosions which occurred simultaneously were suspected to have been masterminded by suicide bombers.
According to Vanguard, Muhtari Ahmadu, a trader near the scene said: “All the people in the mosque died. Not a single one escaped.”
There had also been three blasts at the city of Maiduguri in Northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, October 14, killing at least seven people, locals and the Red Cross said.
The “huge explosions” happened in the Ajilari Cross area of the city, the AFP reports. The area had been targeted by similar attacks twice in the last month, including on September 20 when at least 117 were killed.
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Television Continental had reported that the explosions came a day after the Boko Haram insurgents released a new audio message purportedly from its leader, Abubakar Shekau, who accused the army of lying about successes against the militants.
Source: Legit.ng
