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New bomb attack kills 27 in Nigeria’s Yola

The photo shows people standing in a mosque following a bomb attack in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, October 23, 2015. (AFP photo)

Nearly 30 people have been killed in a bomb attack inside a mosque in eastern Nigeria, hours after dozens were killed in a similar assault.

The bombing was carried out at about 2:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Friday at the Jambutu Juma’at mosque, a newly-inaugurated religious center in Yola. About 100 people were also injured.

“So far we have 27 dead and 96 injured,” a local coordinator at Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.

The bomb exploded shortly after the imam of the mosque had finished his inaugural sermon, a witness said.

“While worshippers had risen for the prayers to start after the sermon by the imam, there was a huge blast in the premises,” he said, adding, “There was confusion and dozens of worshippers lay on the ground in blood.”

The bomb attack was the second in less than 24 hours on Muslims’ places of gathering. Twenty-eight people were also killed after an attacker detonated his explosives at a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, during the early hours of Friday.

Other witnesses said the blast in Yola took place in the middle of a large congregation of worshippers, making a hint that the bombing may have been carried out by an explosive device hidden inside the building.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the two bomb attacks. Nigerian officials often blame such acts of violence on the Takfiri Boko Haram militant group, which has been engaged in an armed rebellion against the government since 2009.


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