A bomb exploded in a teahouse in Kawuri village, northeast Nigeria, killing 19 people and injuring about two dozen others, according to security sources on Thursday.
The blast, which occurred on Wednesday evening, is one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in northeast Nigeria, a region where violence from a prolonged jihadist conflict has recently been on the decline.
“There was an explosion at a tea joint in Kawuri around 8:00 pm yesterday. We have recovered 19 dead bodies and 27 injured,” Ibrahim Liman, a member of an anti-jihadist militia that works with the army, told AFP.
Two other militiamen confirmed the toll in Kawuri, around 50 kilometres (around 30 miles) from the state capital Maiduguri.
No group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s blast, but the Boko Haram jihadist group and their rivals Islamic State West Africa Province are both active in Borno.
Militants still carry out ambushes, roadside bombings and kidnappings from rural hideouts, but bomb attacks in towns and villages are now less common in the northeast.
“Boko Haram struck in Kawuri last night. They took us all by surprise because it has been a while without such attacks,” Babakura Kolo, a militia commander, told AFP.
He said the wounded were transported to hospitals in Maiduguri.
Nigeria’s military did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.
The Kawuri attack occurred just weeks after multiple suicide bombers killed 32 people in Borno State’s Gwoza area, targeting a wedding, a hospital, and a funeral.
Large bomb attacks have become less common since Nigeria’s army repelled militants from the territory they controlled at the height of the conflict in 2014, with Chadian forces also playing a role in driving out jihadists.
Addressing insecurity was a key focus for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he assumed office over a year ago.
Nigeria’s armed forces are also engaged in combat against heavily armed gangs in the country’s northwest.
Since 2009, the jihadist conflict in the northeast has resulted in over 40,000 deaths and displaced an additional two million people.
Furthermore, hundreds of thousands have been displaced in the northwest and central states, where local gangs, known as bandits, frequently target villages and farms for mass kidnappings for ransom.