Gombe Bomb Blast! Witnesses And Red Cross Accounts: More Than 30 Killed

File Photo: scene of  bomb blast

A Red Cross official has confirmed that more than 30 people were killed in the two blasts at a market in Gombe, Gombe state today.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which went off around 5.30pm (1630 GMT), but they bear the hallmarks of attacks by Boko Haram.

The militant Islamists have killed thousands in a six-year insurgency in the country’s northeast. In the last two months, they have killed close to 900 people.

“I have 30 bodies in bags and I am sure there are more out there,” said the Red Cross official, who was involved in the evacuation and wanted to remain anonymous.

An official from the National Emergency Management Agency also confirmed that the attacks had taken place and many people were hurt.

According to eye witnesses;

The first explosion took place outside a footwear shop around 1620 GMT, followed by a second explosion just minutes later, said Badamasi Amin, a local trader who counted at least three bodies.

He said the area was crowded with customers doing some last-minute shopping on the eve of the Eid festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

“I was about 70 metres (yards) from the scene” when the first blast struck, he told the French news agency.

“I and many other people rushed to assist the victims. While we were trying to attend to the wounded, another blast happened outside a china shop just opposite the footwear shop.

“Several people were killed and many more were injured,” he added.

Ali Nasiru, another trader, said he saw “people lying lifeless on the ground”.

“Traders and shoppers helped in evacuating the victims to the hospital,” he said. “I can’t say how many people were affected but there are many.”

Gombe state neighbours the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which have been most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency that has killed more than 15,000 people in Nigeria since 2009.

Gombe’s market and bus station have in recent months already been targeted by bomb and suicide attacks.

President Muhammadu Buhari has made crushing the insurgents his top priority, but hundreds have been killed in bombings and shootings since he was inaugurated on May 29.


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