northern state now a dead zone

Bomb kills 20 in Nigeria market, girls' abduction suspect held

MAIDUGURI Nigeria (Reuters) - A bomb in a van carrying charcoal exploded in a busy market in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people in the latest suspected attack by Islamist militants, witnesses said.

The blast from the vehicle bomb wrecked cars and taxis that were unloading passengers and wares on a road adjoining the market in the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. But in recent months, the Islamist group Boko Haram has embarrassed President Goodluck Jonathan's government with a spate of bombings and spectacular raids, mostly in northeast Nigeria, including the mid-April abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls.

The military said earlier on Tuesday that it had arrested a number of suspected Boko Haram collaborators including a Maiduguri businessman it said was involved in the abduction of the schoolgirls.

Boko Haram has also struck at Abuja, the capital of Africa's biggest economy, with three bombings in three months.

Nigeria's defense headquarters said in a statement on its Twitter account that "a van loaded with charcoal and IED exploded" in Maiduguri's Monday Market on Tuesday. IED means an improvised explosive device.

Musa Sumail, a local human rights activist in Maiduguri who reports on the violence there, told Reuters he counted 20 bodies at the scene of the market explosion.

"Many people died, mostly drivers of taxis that were packed near the roundabout," a witness, trader Modu Ba'ana, said.

A separate explosion at a busy intersection in the north Nigerian city of Kaduna on Tuesday evening around 8:30 p.m. (0330 ET) wounded two people but caused no deaths, police said. The city lies along Nigeria's "Middle Belt," where its largely Christian south and Muslim north meet, and it has been targeted by Boko Haram in the past.

Nigeria's military said in a statement that the businessman it had arrested had helped the Islamist militant group plan several attacks, including the killing of a traditional ruler, the Emir of Gwoza.

Two women were also arrested, one of whom was accused of coordinating payments to other "operatives".

A year-old military offensive against Boko Haram has so far failed to crush the rebels, despite recent assistance in training, intelligence and surveillance from the United States and other Western allies of Jonathan's government.

Boko Haram says it wants to establish an Islamist state in Africa's top oil producer, and the insurgency has killed thousands since 2009, destabilizing much of the northeast.