A man blew himself up at Gamboru cattle market, according to witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. One said he counted at least 20 bodies.
Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said many reports are still coming in from eyewitnesses.
“We have managed to speak directly to a reliable source who is a member of the civilian Joint Task Force,” Ndege said
“These are ordinary Nigerians assisting the miltiary in fighting Boko Haram and our source says a serious explosion did take place at a cattle market., a live stock market visited by hundreds of people everyday trading in livestock.
“What is not clear is the exact number of fatalities according to the security and emergency services who we have reached out to in order to get clarification on how many people have been killed or injured. We are still waiting,” Ndege added.
On May 30, an explosion killed at least 30 people as 29 heads of state and leading diplomats were meeting in Abuja for the inauguration of the country’s new president.
President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that he is moving the military’s headquarters from Abuja, the capital in central Nigeria, to Maiduguri to better tackle the rebellion.
The biggest city in northeast Nigeria is also the birthplace of Boko Haram.
Boka Haram release video
Boko Haram released a new video on Tuesday that allegedly shows fighters shooting wounded Nigerian soldiers in the head and beheading a man in civilian clothes as well as charred parts claimed to be the remnants of a downed Nigerian jet fighter.
The video, the first released since it pledged allegiance to ISIL, has no sign of longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, previously a mainstay of the group’s videos.
In Tuesday’s video, a member of the group said Boko Haram still holds several northeastern towns and has thousands of fighters – claims impossible to substantiate.
The video gloats over alleged disunity in the multinational force that in March announced it had driven Boko Haram from all towns and villages.
Nigerian neighbours Chad and Niger have said the fight against Boko Haram would be long over if they had better cooperation from Nigeria.
The new president is travelling to Chad and Niger on Wednesday on his first official trip outside Nigeria, spokesman Garba Shehu said.
The chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibril, said the military chiefs briefed Buhari on the security situation, especially the fight against Boko Haram, and received a presidential directive to move the military headquarters for the fight against the group to Maiduguri.
The group’s violent campaign has killed some 13,000 people and driven 1.5 million from their homes.
By Al Jazeera