– At least ten persons dead.
A car bomb killed at least 10 people at a crowded bus stop in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe on Friday morning, according to release by emergency services. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for a string of bomb attacks in the region this year. People continued to flee on Friday from the northeastern town of Mubi, which was captured and ransacked by Boko Haram this week.
An eyewitness told reporters he saw emergency workers pull eight people from the wreckage in Gombe, all of whom appeared to be dead. “I am not sure what the death toll will be at the end but it will shoot up very high because the bus stop was very full of commuters,” the eyewitness exclaimed.
An emergency services official at the scene told reporters at least 10 people had died and several were wounded. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government announced a ceasefire with Boko Haram nearly two weeks ago as part of efforts to negotiate the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the group in April. But violence has intensified since, further denting public confidence in the government’s efforts to end the conflict.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and abducted hundreds since launching its uprising in Africa’s largest oil producer in 2009.
Extracted and modified from Yahoo News
