A suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a marketplace in Kauri, a rural community in the Konduga area of Borno State, North East Nigeria, on Wednesday night, July 31.
The explosion occurred around 9 pm at the bustling night market, according to a report by Daily Trust.
The Bama-Maiduguri road communities have been frequent targets of Boko Haram attacks. This latest incident adds to the string of recent assaults on these settlements.
Local sources reported multiple casualties. The explosion resulted in the deaths of a policeman and a woman, and two patrol vans were set on fire. A village government official mentioned that the bomb exploded at about 8:05 pm at a local tea joint where villagers gathered for night chats. The blast left dozens injured.
“No one can say exactly how it happened, but we suspect the bomb was planted rather than a suicide attack. We saw the corpses of 19 people, with an unspecified number of civilians injured. The injured were taken to an undisclosed hospital in Maiduguri for treatment,” an anonymous source told Daily Trust.
Kawuri is located approximately 50 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state capital.
This incident happened 24 hours after Shettima Mustapha, an Accountant with the Local Education Authority in Damboa Local Government Area, was killed when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) on the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu highway in Borno.
Efforts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Daso, were unsuccessful, as his phone was not reachable at the time of reporting.
Authorities have not yet issued an official statement regarding the incident or confirmed the number of fatalities.
In other news, Vanguard reported that Shettima Mustapha, a senior Accounting Officer with the Education Department of Damboa Local Government Area, died after his vehicle encountered an IED along the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu expressway. Another victim had a leg amputated, and several others were injured in the blast.
In June, at least six people were killed and many others injured in a bomb attack at a wedding venue in Tashan Mararaba, Gwoza town, Borno State.