Explosions kill at least 118 in Nigeria market
The blasts could be heard miles away, and eyewitnesses said the twin blasts tore through a busy intersection in between the main market and a university teaching hospital as well as the main bus station of the town. AFPTwo car bombs exploded at a bustling bus terminal and market in Nigeria\’s central city of Jos on Tuesday, killing at least 118 people, wounding dozens and leaving streets strewn with bloodied bodies.
Coordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam of the National Emergency Management Agency said fires were raging in buildings after Tuesday\’s blasts and he expected more bodies to be found.
"We\’ve now recovered 118 bodies from the rubble," he said. "This could rise by morning, as there is still some rubble we haven\’t yet shifted."
The bombs were concealed in a truck and a minibus. officials said.
President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the blasts, calling the perpetrators "cruel and evil".
"The government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror, and this administration will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilisation," he said in a statement issued by his office.
Boko Haram grabbed world headlines with the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls a month ago from a remote village in the northeast.
Britain, the United States and France have pledged to help rescue them.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Jos is known as a flashpoint for sectarian violence. Boko Haram militants had claimed responsibility for previous attacks in the area, including a July 2012 attack near Jos that killed at least 58 people.
Nigerian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to extend a state of emergency for six months in the northeast, where Boko Haram is most active.
President Goodluck Jonathan initially imposed emergency rule in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa in May of last year.
The Islamist militant group is blamed for thousands of deaths over the past five years. The militants continue to hold 276 schoolgirls they kidnapped from a school in Borno state in April.
Source: Agencies
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