Islamists Boko Haram opened fire
and set off bombs at a market in
Maiduguri on Monday, killing at
least 30 people, a medic and a
witness said.
Gunmen believed to be members
of the Islamist sect Boko Haram
stormed the Baga market and
opened fire indiscriminately,
traders said, reporting that
women and children were among
the dead.
“The number of dead could not be
less than 30,” a Maiduguri
hospital nurse told AFP.
The military confirmed the
assault on the market but denied
any civilian deaths, saying
security forces had killed eight
assailants and safely detonated
bombs planted by the attackers.
“At about 1:30 (1230 GMT) this
afternoon at Baga market of
Maiduguri metropolis some
gunmen suspected to be members
of Boko Haram attacked and shot
civilians at the market,”
Lieutenant Colonel Hassan
Mohammed, spokesman of a
special military unit in the city,
told AFP.
He said several people had been
wounded but that there was “no
civilian death at this time”.
The military “immediately came
to the rescue of the situation and
safely detonated three bombs
planted by members of the sect
and shot and killed eight
members of the sect.”
However, one trader who have
his name as Mairami said six
gunmen stormed the food and
commodities market and “opened
fire indiscriminately. At least 30
people including women and
children were killed.”
Another vendor by the name
Gana gave a similar account of
the attack in the city, Boko
Haram’s stronghold.
“The gunmen just opened fire
killing people. I saw three military
vans piled with bodies leaving the
market. There were several
explosions after the shooting,”
Gana said.
The attackers had accused
traders of collaborating with the
military following the arrest last
week of a suspected Boko Haram
member in the market, witnesses
said.
Mairami said one gunman shouted
angrily that traders had “teamed
up with soldiers” to help arrest
members of the sect, which has
been blamed for a wave of deadly
attacks in the mainly Muslim
north of Nigeria.
“‘We have henceforth waged war
against you’,” Mairami said the
gunman had declared, before
spraying bullets on both vendors
and customers.
Last week, traders overpowered
a gunmen suspected to be a Boko
Haram member and handed him
over to the military.
www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/30-killed-as-boko-haram-attack-market/
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