Two female suicide bombers this morning killed 30 people when bombs strapped to their bodies detonated. This, as AFP reported, happened at a crowded market in Maiduguri,the Borno State capital.

“People rushed to offer assistance to the victims (of the first blast) and moments later a second explosion went off,” said Laminu Habib, who was in the targeted Monday Market and whose account was supported by two other witnesses.

Police and rescue workers rushed to the scene. The attack targeted the popular Monday Market area and the sound of the blast could be heard around the city centre, with thick plumes of black smoke billowing out of the market, an AFP reporter said.

“A powerful bomb exploded at One Way road, adjacent (to) the Monday Market (area) around 11:00 am (1000 GMT) today,” said a senior police officer, who requested anonymity.

An explosion blamed on the Islamists at the same market on July 1 killed at least 15 people.

In his own account a market trader Usman Babaji told AFP the attacker concealed the latest bomb in a motorised rickshaw, which are popular throughout the country.

The explosion went off “in a heavily populated location”, Babaji said.

There was no immediately claim of responsibility but Boko Haram has attacked Maiduguri dozens of times during its five-year uprising aimed at creating a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

A suicide bombing by another woman at the phone market in Azare, Bauchi state, led to the death of tens of people last week.
The militant group was founded in Maiduguri more than a decade ago.