Nigeria Mosque Attack Death Toll Rises To 86

Eighty-six people were killed in a double suicide bombing in northeast Nigeria, gravediggers said.

The death toll given on Wednesday was far higher than the 27 people police said had died.

The Adamawa police command told Al Jazeera an additional 58 people were wounded in Tuesday’s attack in the town of Mubi, which has been blamed on Boko Haram.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives at a mosque during afternoon prayers. As worshippers fled, a second bomber exploded a device about 200 metres away.

Local gravediggers at the town’s only cemetery said they buried 86 bodies.

“We buried 76 people yesterday [Tuesday],” one told AFP news agency, asking to remain anonymous.

At 3pm on Wednesday, 10 more bodies were brought in and buried, he added. “These people died overnight from injuries, obviously.”

Another gravedigger, who also asked that his name not be used, supported the account. “We hope we are done with the burials,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the blasts bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, the armed group that has waged a deadly campaign of violence in Africa’s most populous country since 2009, and often deploys suicide bombers in crowded places.

The last time so many people were killed in an attack blamed on Boko Haram was in January 2016, when at least 85 people lost their lives in Dalori, on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajoon on Wednesday told security agencies to beef up security in Mubi and its surrounding areas, “especially markets and places of worship”.

Source: Al Jazeera