A double suicide bomber struck a market in a northeastern Nigerian city on Saturday, killing at least 13 people, police said, with sources in the area saying 18 were dead.
The double attack took place in Bio Market (185 km south of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State) at around 11:30 am, when it is usually crowded.
"Two suicide bombers entered the city (…) and detonated their explosive vests," said Victor Isuku, a spokesman for Borno state police.
He said "a total of 13 people were killed (the number does not include the bombers) and 53 others were injured," he said.
A spokesman for the local militia, Ibrahim Saidou Mania, said 18 people had been killed and 36 wounded.
The Boko Haram jihadist group is not used to taking responsibility for the attacks, but has repeatedly sent women, often teenage girls, to carry out bombings.
The blasts "were so loud that they were heard throughout the city," said a resident of Bio, Ahmad Babagana, adding that he had lost a friend in the double attack.
"I heard a very loud explosion and saw black smoke rising from the market," said another resident, Zakari Tico.
For the past eight years, the city of Bio has been the target of numerous attacks by Boko Haram, most notably the faction led by Abubakar Secau.
In August 2015, a suicide bomber killed at least 50 people and injured 15 others in a nearby village. A few months earlier, in February, a market explosion again claimed the lives of 21 people and injured XNUMX others.
On Friday, the Nigerian military announced that one of its men had been killed and three others wounded in a jihadist attack on their position in the village of Gajibo, about 90 km east of Maiduguri.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari had assured in December 2015 that Boko Haram had been virtually "defeated" by the country's military.