Deadly car bomb blast rips through Nigerian market

A car bomb exploded in a busy market in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people in the latest suspected attack by feared armed group Boko Haram, witnesses said.

The blast wrecked cars and taxis that were unloading passengers on a road adjoining the market in the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. But in recent months, Boko Haram — a group that deliberately targets civilians — has embarrassed President Goodluck Jonathan's government with a spate of bombings and raids, mostly in northeast Nigeria, including the mid-April abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls.

The military said earlier on Tuesday that it had arrested a number of suspected Boko Haram collaborators including a Maiduguri businessman it said was involved in the abduction of the schoolgirls.

Boko Haram has also struck Abuja, the capital of Africa's largest economy, with three bombings in the last three months.

Musa Sumail, a human rights activist in Maiduguri, told Reuters he counted 20 bodies at the scene of the market explosion.

"Many people died, mostly drivers of taxis that were packed near the roundabout," a witness, trader Modu Ba'ana, said.

Nigeria's military said in a statement that the businessman it had arrested had helped the armed group plan several attacks, including the killing of a traditional ruler, the Emir of Gwoza.

Two women were also arrested, one of whom was accused of coordinating payments to other "operatives.” A year-old military offensive against Boko Haram has so far failed to crush the rebels, despite recent assistance in training, intelligence and surveillance from the U.S. and other Western allies of Jonathan's government.

Boko Haram says it wants to establish an Islamic state in Africa's top oil producer, and the insurgency has killed thousands since 2009, destabilizing much of the country’s northeast.

The April abduction of 276 school girls from Chibok in Borno State — 219 of whom remain in captivity — has become a symbol of the government's powerlessness to protect civilians. 

Defense spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade said in the statement that the arrested man used his membership of a pro-government vigilante group "as a cover, while remaining an active terrorist."

"His main role in the group is to spy and gather information for the terrorists," he added.

Olukolade said the man had coordinated several deadly attacks in Maiduguri since 2011, including on customs and military locations as well as planting improvised bombs.

Violence believed to be perpetrated by Boko Haram has ramped up significantly, with hundreds killed in the past two months. On Sunday, the Chibok community was attacked again in three places. Militants opened fire on churches and homes, killing dozens and burning houses to the ground.

The militants are extending their reach beyond their remote northeastern heartlands. A bomb in an upmarket shopping district of the capital Abuja killed 21 people last week, the third attack on the capital in three months.

Boko Haram's reliance on local sources of financing, such as ransoms from kidnapping, robberies and looting, and their use of human couriers to move cash, has made the group's sources of funding difficult to track and choke off.  

Reuters