20th May, 2014
Two car bombs ripped through a crowded market in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday, the latest in a series of deadly blasts, as a state of emergency was extended in the troubled northeast.
The blasts happened at the New Abuja Market, the spokesman for the Plateau state governor, Pam Ayuba, told AFP. An unconfirmed report from one eye witness said at least seven people were killed.
“The first IED (improvised explosive device) was in a truck. The second was in a minibus,” added Kingsley Egbo, of the military State Task Force in Plateau state.
Plateau, of which Jos is the capital, falls in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, where the mainly Christian south meets the Muslim-majority north.
The state and its religiously divided capital have seen deadly sectarian clashes in the past but has also been hit by violence from Boko Haram extremists.
The bombings follow two separate attacks on the same bus station in a suburb of the capital, Abuja, on April 14 and May 1, that killed more than 90 people. The first was claimed by Boko Haram.
Four people were also killed on Sunday in a suicide car bomb attack in a predominantly Christian area of the northern city of Kano that had been previously targeted by the group.
There was no immediate indication of responsibility for the latest strike but the police said two men were arrested at a bus station after being overhead discussing the Kano bombing.