Car bomb explodes at market in northeast Nigeria

FILE-In this Wednesday, June, 25, 2014, file photo, a Nigerian soldier, center, walks, at the scene of an explosion in Abuja, Nigeria. A car bomb exploded in a market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday morning, July 1, 2014 and dozens of people are feared dead, witnesses said. They immediately blamed Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group whose birthplace is Maiduguri and which is accused of a series of recent bomb attacks in the West African nation. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga, File) FILE-In this Wednesday, June, 25, 2014, file photo, a Nigerian soldier, center, walks, at the scene of an explosion in Abuja, Nigeria. A car bomb exploded in a market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday morning, July 1, 2014 and dozens of people are feared dead, witnesses said. They immediately blamed Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group whose birthplace is Maiduguri and which is accused of a series of recent bomb attacks in the West African nation. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga, File)

By Associated Press July 1, 2014 4 min read

BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) – A car bomb exploded in a market in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday morning, and dozens of people are feared dead, witnesses said.

They immediately blamed Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group whose birthplace is Maiduguri and which is accused of a series of recent bomb attacks in the West African nation.

Tuesday’s explosives were hidden under a load of charcoal in a pickup van, according to witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Trader Daba Musa Yobe, who works near the popular market, said the bomb went off just after the market opened at 8 a.m., before most traders or customers had arrived.

Other witnesses said they saw about 50 bodies, and that five cars and some tricycle taxis were set ablaze by the explosion.