45 dead in Nigeria bombings

MAIDUGURI, Nov 25 (AFP): More than 45 people died Tuesday in twin bombings in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a local health worker and witnesses told AFP.

Health worker Dogara Shehu said he counted more than "45 people killed, some of them completely decapitated" in an account backed up by a witness, who declined to give his name.

A spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that "many people have been killed" but did not have an official death toll.

Meanwhile:  Boko Haram has taken over another town in Nigeria's far northeast, a lawmaker, a local government official and a security source said on Tuesday, after militant fighters attacked on market day.

Maina Ma'aji Lawan, who represents northern Borno state in Nigeria's Senate, said the Islamists were in control of Damasak, on the border with neighbouring Niger.

Nigerian soldiers and hundreds of residents fled across the frontier to seek sanctuary when the heavily armed militants opened fire on traders on Monday morning, he added.