Suspected Nigerian Islamists opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri on Monday, killing at least 30 people, a medic and a witness said. Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram stormed the fish section of Baga market and sprayed stallholders and vendors with bullets, traders said, reporting that women and children were among the dead.
"The number of dead could not be less than 30," a Maiduguri hospital nurse told AFP. The military confirmed the assault on the market but denied any civilian deaths, saying security forces had killed eight assailants and safely detonated bombs planted by the attackers.
"At about 1:30 (1230 GMT) this afternoon at Baga market of Maiduguri metropolis some gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram attacked and shot civilians at the market," Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed, spokesman of a special military unit in the city, told AFP.
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