By Olarewaju Kola
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria
At least 50 people have been killed and scores wounded in multiple blasts that rocked Maiduguri, the provincial capital of Nigeria's northeastern Borno State on Saturday.
"So far 50 dead bodies have been received here from the three blasts and 36 injured persons are receiving treatment at our Accident and Emergency unit," Dr. Salisu Kwaya Bra, the chief medical director of Borno's Specialists Hospital, told journalists at the hospital.
A hospital source said more than 60 were injured in the blasts.
"Our facilities are overwhelmed; we couldn't take all the injured persons," he told The Anadolu Agency, requesting anonymity.
"Some of them have been taken to the University Teaching Hospital and others to Umaru Shehu Hospital," added the source.
Multiple explosions rocked Maiduguri early on Saturday.
A blast went off at noon near a local market along Baga road, followed by a second explosion in a popular market.
"A tricycle was trying to enter Baga market at about 12 noon and suddenly the blast occurred from the tricycle," Samson Adeniji, a local resident who was around Baga area when the blast occurred, told AA earlier.
"The place was crowded as there were many fruits sellers and other traders there, many people may have died," he added.
Residents said they heard a third blast within the metropolis at about 12:32 p.m.
Most roads have since been condoned off as youth vigilantes mounted heavy surveillance in many parts of the city.
Boko Haram militants have mounted several attacks on Maiduguri since the beginning of the year.
Militants repeatedly staged attacks on the provincial capital last year, including novel deployment of suicide bombers, each time killings dozens of locals.
Maiduguri has witnessed two major Boko Haram attacks since 2013, during which a number of insurgents were apprehended by local vigilante groups.
Since 2009, Nigeria has battled a fierce Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the country's volatile northeast and left thousands dead.
A seemingly emboldened Boko Haram recently stepped up its militant activity, seizing several areas of Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where it has declared a self-styled "Islamic caliphate."
The insurgency, said to have claimed over 13,000 lives to date, is considered Nigeria's worst security crisis since a three-year civil war that lasted from 1967 to 1970.
