Two explosions near Jos, Nigeria market kill at least 40 people

JOS, Nigeria, May 20 (UPI) —

Two explosions near a crowded market in Jos, Nigeria, killed at least 40 people Tuesday.




The city in central Nigeria, with a population of about 900,000, has been the site of clashes between Christian and Muslim groups, and has been a target of Boko Haram Islamists.




Jos is in Plateau state, the divide separating Nigeria’s largely Muslim north from its Christian-majority south. Violence in the state has also been caused by land disputes between nomadic Muslims and Christian farmers.




No group has yet taken responsibility for the explosions. A military spokesman said one bomb detonated in a truck and another in a minibus. A local journalist said at least 40 bodies could be found in a hospital in Jos, with more being brought in.




Nigeria is also dealing with the abduction of over 200 girls from a school by Boko Haram insurgents, and bombings in the capital city of Abuja, where 19 were killed earlier this month and at least 70 died in a bus station bomb explosion in April.




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