UPDATE: 56 dead in twin Adamawa bomb blast

Yusuf Muhammed, Chairman, Madagali Local Government, Adamawa, said 56 persons died and 177 injured in the twin bomb blasts that hit Madagali Market on Friday in Adamawa.

Muhammed, who confirmed the development to NAN in a telephone interview, said 57 of the injured were critical and 120 minor.

He said the critically injured were rushed to Mubi General Hospital and Yola Specialists Hospital, while those that sustained minor injuries were treated and discharged .

NAN reports that the Madagali Market operates on Fridays and the two blasts occurred at the grains and second hand clothes sections of the market.

The council boss appealed to the federal, state governments, relevant donors and humanitarian agencies to come to the aid of the people.

He said such a gesture would help them in alleviating the pain and loss from the blasts.

Chronicle NG had earlier reported that at least 10 people were confirmed dead and 67 injured minutes after the twin blast.

Police spokesman Othman Abubakar confirmed the blasts and said it was unclear if the attacks came from suicide bombers or planted explosives.

A bus station near the same market was targeted by two women suicide bombers who killed at least 30 people in December 2015.

In June, Boko Haram extremists opened fire on mourners at a funeral in Madagali, Adamawa killing 18 people.

The attacks continue despite government and military assertions that the insurgents are on the run. President Muhammadu Buhari had declared the extremist group was “technically defeated” in December 2015.

Last week, a year later, he said a multinational force from Nigeria and neighboring states is readying to “move simultaneously and spontaneously for us to see the end of Boko Haram.”

Buhari said the insurgents “are done for” in the Lake Chad Basin bordering Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

But the United Nations says more than 1 million people are believed trapped there by ongoing fighting without food or medical help.

Boko Haram’s seven-year uprising has killed more than 20,000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes.

The United Nations has launched a $1 billion appeal to help 5.1 million people in danger of starvation, calling the crisis in northeast Nigeria the worst on the African continent.

Buhari has accused the U.N. and aid agencies of exaggerating the crisis to seek donations.

“The government seems to be more interested in managing perception,” Lagos-based SBM Intelligence analysts said Friday.

Adding that much of the crisis “is rooted in the ineptitude of the (state) agencies involved, rife corruption causing diversion of the food aid, and the still-present threat of Boko Haram ambushes, which make the provision of supplies a risky undertaking.”

AP has reported that children already are dying of acute malnutrition in the relatively accessible Maiduguri city.