Two blasts hit central Nigerian city of Jos

Two blasts hit the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday evening, one at a restaurant and another targeting a Muslim cleric who has disowned Islamist militant group Boko Haram, several witnesses said.

Plateau State police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh confirmed there had been two attacks in Jos but had no further details immediately.

"I saw people running out crying, some with bloodstains," said resident Bashir Abdullahi, describing the scene after he said a suicide bomber ran into the crowded restaurant.

“I believe many lives were lost.”

The second attack targeted cleric Sani Yahaya Jingir as he was preaching, witnesses said. Gunmen started shooting sporadically and then there was a loud blast, they said.

"We saw two or three vehicles coming from different directions and we started hearing gunshots from all angles and then a very loud bang, like a bomb being thrown into the mosque," said witness Abubakar Shehu.

There was no official word on casualties from the two attacks. A Reuters witness at a hospital in Jos said 16 bodies had been brought in.

A suicide bomber killed six people at a church in northeast Nigeria earlier on Sunday after a week in which suspected Boko Haram insurgents killed more than 200 people.

The spate of bloodletting prompted renewed international outrage and French President Francois Hollande said he was ready to hold a summit with regional leaders to co-ordinate the fight against Boko Haram.

President Muhammadu Buhari said the murder of up to 150 Kukawa residents near Lake Chad on Wednesday by Boko Haram was a "heinous atrocity".

Several people who attended burials there, including a senior government official, said 147 bodies, including 22 children, had been interred.

Also last week in Borno, about 50 people were shot dead in nearby Monguno, 12 men were killed in a raid on Miringa and two suicide bombers killed another 10 alongside a highway.

New president Buhari vowed to crush Boko Haram when he was sworn in on May 29th. But the insurgents have stepped up their attacks, despite losing huge chunks of territory this year to soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Mr Buhari's spokesman Femi Adesina said on Saturday that a multinational capability in place with the power to "devastate and decapitate" the insurgency would soon be set in motion.

Reuters