Death toll rises in Nigeria bomb blast

The death toll from a twin suicide attack on the Nigerian town of Madagali on Friday has risen to 56 with 177 injured.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack analysts say it bears the hallmark of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Madagali Market operates on Fridays and the two blasts occurred at the grains and second hand clothes sections of the market

Major Badare Akintoye, a spokesman for an army unit in the nearby town of Mubi, said the attacks had been carried out simultaneously by two schoolgirls.

Boko Haram has often targeted crowded areas in suicide bomb attacks across northeast Nigeria and in neighboring Cameroon and Niger.

The jihadist group has killed some 15,000 people and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Nigeria’s army has pushed the militant group back to its stronghold in the vast Sambisa forest in the past few months.

Reuters