It was bloody Thursday in Kano and Jos as terrorists bombed the two cities killing scores and wounding many. In Jos, no fewer than 31 people were killed in a in twin bomb attack while a 13-year-old girl in an explosives vest was arrested in the northern city of Kano.

The blasts in Jos happened at a make-shift market near the bus station hurriedly built after a similar bomb attack in May which left at least 120 people dead.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the city, said the scene of the attack was a densely populated area.

“The bodies recovered so far are 31 but rescue workers are at the scene and the figures may change,” added Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the Plateau state governor Jonah Jang.

Jos has been targeted by Boko Haram Islamists in the past but it is also a theatre of ethnic and sectarian tensions that frequently boiled over into deadly violence.

In Kano, a senior security source and a nurse said a 13-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after she and a male accomplice walked into a clinic seeking medical treatment.

The location of the clinic — some 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) from the scene of a double suicide attack by two women on a textile market just hours earlier — raised suspicions.

“We alerted the police who immediately mobilised and arrested the duo,” said one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

“On searching her, the police discovered explosives hidden under her hijab, confirming our suspicion. They took her and the man accompanying her away.”

The senior security source said the young girl was from the northeastern state of Bauchi and had been part of the “suicide team” that attacked the busy Kantin Kwari textile bazaar.

Four people were killed in that attack and seven others injured.

“Her arrest is a huge breakthrough in unravelling the spate of suicide attacks by young girls in the city,” the source added.