Northeast Nigeria, especially the states of Borno and Yobe, have been in the grip of insurgencies for over a decade, but Taraba, located at the eastern end of Nigeria’s Middle Belt central region, has not previously been attacked.
In a statement posted late on Wednesday on a Telegram messaging channel used by Islamic State to distribute its propaganda, the group described those who detonated the bomb in the market as “soldiers of the caliphate in central Nigeria”. The whole of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has been suffering from a rise in crime and violence, exacerbated by the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The worst and longest-running crisis, however, is in the northeast, where rival Islamist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa have killed, abducted and looted on a massive scale whilst fighting against the Nigerian military.
What was their aim since they took responsibility?