A bomb blast on Saturday at a crowded market in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 16 people and wounded about 20 others.

The bomb went off around midday in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.  Media reports say the blast may have been triggered by a 10-year-old girl.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In Potiskum, another northern city, a police official told a reporter a car explosion that killed two people was a suicide attack.

Maiduguri and Potiskum have both been targeted before by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, which is carrying out an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.

The latest attacks came a week after Boko Haram militants seized control of the town of Baga in northern Borno state, after intense gun battles with Nigerian soldiers.

Officials say the militants have since burned down much of Baga and surrounding villages, prompting thousands of people to flee to Maiduguri or to islands in Lake Chad.

Estimates of the number of civilians killed in the past week range from several hundred up to 2,000. Boko Haram has been blamed for violence that killed thousands of people during the past five years.

Meanwhile, candidates are beginning to campaign for Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections in February.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for re-election, has come under strong criticism for failing to stop Boko Haram. The group, whose name means “Western education is a sin,” has seized large parts of Borno state for what its leader calls an Islamic caliphate.
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