A pair of suicide bombings — the second going off after rescuers and worried relatives had arrived at the scene — ripped through a northeastern Nigerian mosque, killing at least 32 people and showing once again the dangers in the West African nation.
A bomber rode a bicycle to the Maiduguri mosque and then set off the first explosion during maghrib prayers at 6:11 p.m. Thursday, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said on its Facebook page.
That blast spurred first responders, relatives and others to rush to the site, where some of them died in the second bombing.
The Nigerian agency reported Friday morning that at least 32 people were wounded in the blasts, including seven in critical condition. It was not immediately clear how many suicide bombers were among the 32 dead.
The same agency noted that five bombs overall had gone off in and around Maiduguri between midday Thursday and midday Friday, resulting in 39 total deaths and 49 injuries.
“If you #see something, #say something,” the NEMA post urged.
The capital of Borno state, Maiduguri has been beset for years by such bloody attacks, which have been supported, planned and carried out by members of Boko Haram.
The Islamist extremist group has shown no mercy in its quest to impose its strict version of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south. While it wasn’t immediately known if the group is to blame for Thursday’s suicide blasts in Maiduguri, such an attack would be consistent with its grisly past — one that shows little apparent distinction between killing innocent civilians or uniformed officers and troops.
The group has killed hundreds in attacks on many civilian-rich targets such as marketplaces, churches and mosques and conducted mass kidnappings — the most notorious being the abduction of over 200 girls last year from a school in the northeastern city of Chibok. Those girls’ fate remains a mystery.