Nearly 100 killed in Nigeria attacks (Roundup)

Nearly 100 people were killed and many injured in different attacks carried out Tuesday by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's Maidugri city and Damasak and Ashigarchi towns.

According to Xinhua, medicos at a state-run hospital said at least 45 were killed and 15 injured in two blasts that rocked the busy market in Maiduguri. "Some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition," health worker Abu Modu said.

A Xinhua reporter at the hospital said he first saw 35 lifeless bodies, some decapitated, and 10 more bodies wheeled into the health facility as he was leaving the place.

Efe, however, reported that at least 35 people were killed when a powerful explosion tore through a crowded marketplace Maiduguri, security sources said.

The apparent suicide attack was perpetrated by two women terrorists around 10.00 a.m. when the market was crowded, witnesses told Trust, a Nigerian daily.

The noise of the explosion could be heard throughout the state capital of Borno, one of the Nigerian states worst-affected by the violence of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

No official casualty figures were immediately released but it is believed that the toll from the Maiduguri blast could rise.

In a separate incident of attacks, Boko Haram militants attacked two places in the Borno state, killing over 50 people and torching buildings, eyewitnesses said.

The attacks targeted the towns of Damasak and Ashigarchi, located close to the border with Niger, in one of the areas considered a stronghold of the radical Islamist militia.

At least 50 people were killed in Damasak, according to eyewitnesses, while details of the attack on Ashigarchi were yet to be known.

In Damasak, hundreds of militants attacked residents and torched homes, shops and security checkpoints.

A state of emergency has been declared in the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe due to the large number of attacks carried out by Boko Haram in these northern areas.

Militants of Boko Haram (meaning non-Islamic education is a sin) are fighting to impose Sharia Law in Nigeria, a country mostly inhabited by Muslims in the north and by Christians in the south.

Over 3,000 civilians have been killed in violence involving Boko Haram since the beginning of 2014, according to the Nigerian government.