Twin blasts strike Nigerian market

Twin bomb blasts on Thursday struck a market in the Nigerian city of Jos, killing 32 people near the site where a similar attack killed scores in May, according to the country’s rescue agency.

"It is a twin bombing... near where the bombing in May occurred," Mohammed Abdulsalam of the National Emergency Management Agency told Agence France-Presse, referring to the Terminus Market area of the religiously divided city.

Thursday’s blasts occurred shortly after 6:00 p.m. local time, as store owners were closing their shops and Muslims were preparing for evening prayers

Witnesses said one blast went off at an outdoor food stand and the other at a nearby marketplace in the center of the city. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In May, a bomb blast in Jos that was blamed on the anti-government armed group Boko Haram killed 118 people. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Thursday, but Boko Haram was suspected.

Boko Haram is blamed for a series of bombings that have killed hundreds of people in the past year in northern and central Nigeria. The group is based in the northeast, where it has taken over several towns and villages along the border with Cameroon and declared an Islamic caliphate.

Wire services