At least 23 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in multiple suspected suicide bombings in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The explosions occurred on Monday evening during iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, targeting the post office, market areas and the entrance to the University of Maiduguri teaching hospital.
Authorities attributed the attacks to “suspected Boko Haram terrorist suicide bombers” using improvised explosive devices. Military spokesperson Sani Uba stated: “The cowardly attacks targeted crowded public areas in an attempt by the terrorists to inflict mass casualties and create panic within the metropolis.”
The bombings mark a significant escalation in a city that had seen relative calm in recent years, as the long-running insurgency was pushed to rural areas. The post office and Monday market were frequently targeted during the height of the Boko Haram insurgency a decade ago, when 58 people died in similar attacks.
The latest violence follows an attack on a military post on the outskirts of Maiduguri on Sunday night. No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion falls on Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which have been battling the Nigerian state to establish an Islamic caliphate.
President Bola Tinubu, on a state visit to the UK, has directed security chiefs to relocate to Maiduguri to “take charge of the situation” and “locate them, confront them and completely defeat them”. The attacks have raised fears that jihadists are staging a comeback, as warned by Borno Governor Babagana Zulum last year.
