The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and International Community of Red Cross (ICC) in Borno State have reported evacuating some 17 corpses from a meat market in Maiduguri following the explosion that hit the site on Tuesday.

According to spokesman of the NEMA in the Northeast zone, Abdul Kadir Ibrahim, “Our men have evacuated not less than 17 the dead corpses in the explosion.”

Ibrahim was not able to give accurate figure of those that injured in the explosion as officials from the agency with other humanitarian agencies were still involved in taking the injured to Umaru Shehu General Hospital in Maiduguri.

The spokesman of the ICRC in the Borno State, Mallam Umar Sadiq, however confirmed that 24 people injured in the explosion were rushed to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospitals and State Specialists Hospital.

Kasuwan Shanu is the major market for the sales of livestock in Maiduguri, also accommodating an abattoir. Many residents of the largely-impoverished town patronise the market.

About 50 people were reported killed in the attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants.

Credit: CAJ News