More than 20 people have been killed in blasts carried out by suspected Boko Haram militants in Maiduguri, the authorities have said

At least 23 people have been killed and 108 injured after a series of suspected suicide bomb attacks struck Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's northeastern Borno State, officials have confirmed.

State police said the "suspected suicide IED explosions" occurred at a market, the gate of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, and the city's post office area at about 7:24 PM local time on Monday.

"Preliminary investigation reveals that the incidents were carried out by suspected suicide bombers," police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said. He added that "normalcy has been fully restored" in the affected areas, amid heightened security across Maiduguri and the surrounding districts.

Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum said the attacks were "utterly condemnable, barbaric, and inhumane."

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No group has claimed responsibility. However, Maiduguri lies at the heart of a long-running insurgency by Boko Haram and its rival offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), both of which operate across Borno State and the wider Lake Chad region.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Nigerian Army blamed "suspected Boko Haram terrorist suicide bombers" for the explosions. "The cowardly attacks targeted crowded public areas in an attempt by the terrorists to inflict mass casualties and create panic within the metropolis," it said.

The attack is the second major bombing in Maiduguri in less than three months. Last December, a suspected suicide blast at the Al-Adum mosque killed at least seven worshippers and wounded 35 others, police said.

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The wider insurgency, launched by Boko Haram in Borno in 2009, has killed thousands of people and displaced about 2 million.

Earlier this month, local media reported that about 40 Nigerian soldiers were killed when ISWAP gunmen overran four military bases in Borno, although the army disputed that toll without providing its own figure.

The West African country declared a national security emergency in November in response to the spiraling violence. Last month, about 200 American troops arrived in Nigeria to support efforts against Islamic State militants, weeks after the administration of US President Donald Trump announced airstrikes on militant targets in the country's northwest.

RT / RT

(RT.com)