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Blasts kill at least 32 in Nigerian city of Jos
11/12/2014
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two bombs exploded near a bus station in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Thursday evening, witnesses said, the second one killing at least 32 people.
Casualties from the first blast could not immediately be ascertained and Nigerian security sources could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bomb blasts that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants killed 118 people in the same area of Jos in May this year.
Boko Haram is a Sunni jihadist movement that has been waging a five-year insurgency to establish an Islamist state in the northeast of the country.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states last year. The number of attacks has risen sharply since then, in the run-up to elections in February 2015.
The latest blasts came as both Jonathan's ruling party and the main opposition coalition agreed on candidates to contest the elections, in which security is likely to be a major campaign issue. Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari will be challenging Jonathan at the polls for the second time.
(Reporting by Buhari Bello; Additional reporting by Isaac Abrak; Writing by Julia Payne, editing by Tim Cocks and Mark Trevelyan)
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