Lagos: The Nigerian government confirmed Friday that 32 people were killed and 47 injured in twin suicide bomb blasts in the central north state of Plateau.
Zonal coordinator of the country’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abdulsalam Mohammed. told reporters in the state capital Jos that the corpses had been deposited in the morgue, Xinhua reported.
Mohammed said 47 people injured in the blasts Thursday evening were receiving treatment at Plateau Specialist Hospital, Bingham Teaching Hospital and Our Lady of Apostle (OLA) Hospital in Jos.
The first blast was said to have occurred at about 6.30 p.m. at a popular eatery situated in the busy Terminus area of the metropolis, while the second device exploded minutes later along Masalachi Juma road.
Terminus is usually heavily crowded in the evenings when traders return to make quick evening sales.
The crowd at Terminus is particularly heavy during this season as residents go for Christmas shopping. It also serves as a park for commuters returning home after the close of work or business.
Plateau state is situated in Nigeria’s middle belt where the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south meet. It has seen years of ethnic tension and is a major potential flashpoint of pre-election and post-election violence.
State capital Jos was plunged into violence March 7, 2010, when members of local Muslim and Christian communities fought each other in revenge for previous killings.