Bomb blasts in Nigeria’s Borno state kill 18, injure 48

Bomb blasts in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state killed at least 18 people and injured 48 others, CNN reported, quoting the state’s emergency services.

The first blast hit a wedding ceremony around 3 PM local time on Saturday, followed by another at General Hospital Gwoza and a third at a funeral, CNN reported.

According to the head of the local state emergency management agency, the attacks were carried out by suspected suicide bombers.

WION, citing a report by AFP, reported that a state police spokesperson said in one of the three blasts in Gwoza, a woman with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony.

The blast took place around 3:45 PM local time when a “woman carrying a baby on her back detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) she had on her at a crowded motor park,” Borno State police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said.

The female suicide bombers also targeted a hospital in the same town and carried out another attack at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast, WION reported, citing AFP.

Baekindo Saidu, Director General of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed 18 deaths, including children, adults, and pregnant women.

“The degree of injuries ranges from abdominal ruptures, skull fractures, and limb fractures,” Saidu said, as quoted by Reuters.

As per AFP, Saidu said 19 people who had been “seriously injured” were rushed to the regional capital Maiduguri, while 23 people are awaiting evacuation.

The Nigerian town, which lies across the border from Cameroon, has been witnessing violence for more than a decade. Boko Haram had seized Gwoza in 2014, but it was retaken by the Nigerian military with help from Chadian forces the year after.