31 people died in Twin bomb blast in Damboa Borno state (Jeremy Spell Blog)

Suspected Boko Haram jihadists killed at
least 31 people in a twin suicide bomb
attack on a town in northeast Nigeria, a
local official and militia leader told AFP on
Sunday.
Two blasts ripped through the town of
Damboa in Borno state on Saturday evening
targeting people returning from celebrating
the Eid al-Fitr holiday, in an attack bearing
all the hallmarks of Boko Haram.
Following the suicide bombings, the
jihadists fired rocket-propelled grenades
into the crowds that had gathered at the
scene of the attacks, driving the number of
casualties higher.
“There were two suicide attacks and
rocket-propelled grenade explosions in
Damboa last night which killed 31 people
and left several others injured,” said militia
leader Babakura Kolo.
Two suicide bombers detonated their
explosives in Shuwari and nearby Abachari
neighbourhoods in the town around 10:45
pm (2145GMT), killing six residents, said
Kolo, speaking from the state capital
Maiduguri, which is 88 kilometres from the
town.
“No one needs to be told this is the work of
Boko Haram,” Kolo said.
A local government official, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity, confirmed the
death toll.
“The latest death toll is now 31 but it may
increase because many among the injured
may not survive,” said the official.
“Most of the casualties were from the
rocket projectiles fired from outside the
town minutes after two suicide bomber
attacked,” he said.
The jihadist group has deployed suicide
bombers, many of them young girls, in
mosques, markets and camps housing
people displaced by the nine-year
insurgency which has devastated Nigeria’s
northeast.