Seven persons died and 48 others injured when two suicide bombers struck at a market in Potiskum, Yobe State on Sunday,PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
An official involved in the management of the disaster, who declined to be mentioned because he was not permitted to talk to the media, confirmed the casualty.
He said the injured victims were being treated at the General Hospital in Potiskum.
Two teenage female suicide bombers reportedly carried out the attacks.
The Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Markus Danladi, had earlier confirmed the blasts to PREMIUM TIMES but declined to give casualty figure until after proper assessment of the scenes of the attacks.
Apart from the twin explosions at the GSM market, the Daily Trust newspaper also reported that a bomb-laden Volkswagen Golf intercepted by the police exploded and killed an inspector, and a driver while many others were injured at the Divisional Police Station in Potiskum.
Mr. Danladi, who confirmed the incident, said the policemen died on the spot.
Sunday’s attacks in Potiskum happen less than two days after gunmen, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect, attacked Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.
The Defence Headquarters said troops engaged the attackers in a long gun battle overnight, killing many of them.
The Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade, in a statement on Saturday said troops inflicted heavy casualty on the insurgents while five soldiers who were seriously wounded in the battle were receiving treatment in a military hospital.
“The terrorists had launched massive attack from different directions of the town on Friday evening, but troops were promptly mobilized to repel the attack that lasted the night resulting in heavy casualty on the terrorists before the rest of them retreated,” Mr. Olukolade said.
Yobe is one of the states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency that has killed over 15,000 people in northern Nigeria since 2009.
Source:
Premium Times
Premium Times
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