YOLA, Nigeria, Nov. 17 (UPI) — At least 30 people were killed Tuesday in a market in the Nigerian city of Yola in a suspected Boko Haram bombing.
The bomb exploded just as fruit, vegetable and livestock traders were closing for the day. Tuesday’s attack was the second such attack on Yola this year. The city, in the northern state of Adamawa, has suffered some of the worst violence of the Boko Haram insurgency.
The attack comes just three days after Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari visited the city and told local soldiers the militant Islamic group was near defeat. And it came less than a month after a bomb killed 27 people during a prayer ceremony inaugurating a nearby mosque, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
“The ground near my shop was covered with dead bodies,” said shop owner Alhaji Ahmed. “I helped to load 32 dead bodies into five vehicles.”
The Nigerian army has taken back most of the territory Boko Haram originally captured. Since then, the militant group has attacked bus stations, places of worship and markets, like the one in Yola. They have also led hit-and-run attacks on villages.
Buhari decorated local soldiers for bravery during his visit and also toured a refugee camp. Many people have been displaced in a six-year battle that also claimed 17,000 lives.
Boko Haram “are very close to defeat,” Buhari told the soldiers. He said it was up to them “to remain vigilant, alert and focused to prevent Boko Haram from sneaking into our communities to attack soft targets.”
Earlier Tuesday, 28 people were killed in a mosque by a suicide bomber in Maiduguri, the city were the militant group was founded.
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