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MAIDUGURI. — At least 80 people were killed and about 150 injured in multiple bomb attacks in north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno state on Sunday evening, police and witnesses said on Monday.

The state is the birthplace of the insurgency waged by Boko Haram and has been the focus of attacks by suspected members of the militant Islamist group that have killed more than 800 people since President Muhammadu Buhari took office on May 29.

Three bomb blasts in the state capital Maiduguri around 7:30pm. (1830 GMT) left at least 54 people dead and 90 injured. Around two hours later, two bombs exploded at a checkpoint some 135 km away at a market in the town of Monguno.

Local residents and a hospital source said that the attack killed 27 people and injured 62 others.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks,but they bore the hallmarks of the jihadi sect, which has been trying to carve out a state in the north-east of Africa’s most populous country since 2009.

“A suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber detonated IEDs (improvised explosive devices) at a mosque in Ajilari and some insurgents also threw IEDs at a viewing centre,” Victor Isuku, a police spokesman in Maiduguri, said of the first attacks.

“Total casualty figure is now 54,” he said. A Nigerian army spokesman said on Sunday that three bombs had gone off.

Local residents said a suicide bomber hit a market at Monguno, killing at least 27 people. — Reuters.