Three suicide bombers killed at least 30 people on Sunday, leaving over 40 injured. The attack took place at Konduga village, 25 km from Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, emergency services reported on Monday. This would be the biggest mass killing by suicide bombers happening this year.

 

The victims were watching football on TV outside the hall at Konduga when they denoted the bombs.

 

“Yesterday, around 8 pm (1900 GMT), it was reported that there was a very loud explosion in (the village of) Konduga. On reaching the scene of the incident, we found there was a lot of casualties. In fact, the death toll was over 30 and the injured over 42,” an emergency service official told Reuters.

 

Al Jazeera reports that the owner had prevented one of the bombers from entering the venue. Meanwhile, two other bombers had mingled with the crowd at the tea stall.

 

The leader of a self-defence group in the town Ali Hassan told Al Jazeera that there had been a heated argument before the bomb attack.

 

 

“There was a heated argument between the operator and the bomber who blew himself up,” Hassan said over the phone.

 

He also added that most of the victims were from outside the football viewing centre.

 

Hassam told Al Jazeera, “Nine people died on the spot, including the operator. And 48 were injured,” he said.

 

Usman Kachalla, the head of operations at the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) tells Al Jazeera that the high number of fatalities was because of the delay in emergency response.

 

“Lack of an appropriate health facility to handle such huge emergency situation and the delay in obtaining security clearance to enable us [to] deploy from Maiduguri in good time led to the high death toll,” he said.

 

According to Reuters, Boko Haram regards soccer — often watched by Nigerians while drinking beer — as un-Islamic and the ultimate demonstration of corrupting Western influence.

 

They have claimed about 30,000 lives and displaced millions of people from their homes so far.