Boko Haram blamed as ten die in car bombing

TEN people have died and several others were injured in a car bomb explosion at a crowded bus stop in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Gombe.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, near the end of the morning rush hour yesterday, but Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for a string of bomb attacks in the region this year.

Gombe is close to Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state, the centre of the insurgency.

Witness Godfrey Anebo said he saw emergency workers pull eight people from the wreckage around the blast, all of whom appeared to be dead.

He said: “I am not sure what the death toll will be at the end, but it will shoot up very high because the bus stop was very full of commuters.”

Emergency services said least ten people had died.

The government announced a ceasefire with Boko Haram nearly two weeks ago as part of efforts to negotiate the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the group in April.

But violence has soared since then, further denting public confidence in the government’s efforts to end the conflict .

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and abducted hundreds since launching its uprising in 2009.

The militants, who want an Islamic state in the region, seized control of the north-eastern town of Mubi on Wednesday and Thursday, robbing banks, burning down houses, killing dozens of people and forcing thousands to flee.

Suspected insurgents killed at least 17 people and abducted dozens in a series of attacks in the centre of Borno state last weekend. At least 25 girls were kidnapped from a remote north-eastern town days earlier.

at