A car bomb killed at least 10 people at a crowded bus stop in the
northeast Nigerian city of Gombe on Friday morning, emergency services
said. 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, captured and ransacked by Boko Haram this week.
Witness Godfrey Anebo told Reuters 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,”
Anebo said. An emergency services official at the scene told Reuters 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 cease-fire 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.
Reuters
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