by Our Foreign Desk

OFFICIALS blamed Boko Haram extremists yesterday for two bombings which killed 44 people in separate attacks in Nigeria on Sunday.

The attacks on a mosque and a top restaurant in the central city of Jos also wounded at least 67. The final toll was not known.

One bomb exploded at Shagalinku, a restaurant patronised by state governors and other politicians seeking specialties from Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, witnesses said.

Sabi’u Bako had just bought a takeaway when he heard a massive blast as he walked off with friends. “The restaurant was destroyed and we saw many people covered in blood,” he said. “We can’t believe that we escaped.”

The explosion at the Yantaya mosque came as leading cleric Sani Yahaya of Jama’atu Izalatul Bidia, a peace group which which preaches co-existence between religions, was addressing a crowd.

Danladi Sani said a man robed in white opened fire, apparently targeting Mr Yahaya, and then blew himself up. Mr Yahaya was unharmed, he said.

“He is a great Islamic scholar who has spoken out against Boko Haram, and that is why we believe he was the target,” Mr Sani said.

Extremists also returned to north-eastern villages on Sunday which they had attacked three days earlier, killing nine and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes. Local self-defence militia killed three of the militants.

The blasts on Sunday night came hours after a female suicide bomber attacked a crowded evangelical Christian church service in the northeastern city of Potiskum, killing at least five people.