Seven (7) Blasts rock northeast Nigeria after president's visit

Seven loud explosions shook Nigeria's north-eastern city of Maiduguri on Friday, witnesses said, hours after President Goodluck Jonathan ended a trip there to try to galvanise support for his battle against Islamist insurgents.

Witnesses said the explosions happened within minutes of each other, suggesting the kind of coordinated strike that used to be the hallmark of Islamist sect Boko Haram, before a military campaign weakened them. They remain the main security headache to Africa's top energy producer.

President Jonathan spent the night in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the insurgency, which seeks to carve an Islamist state out of religiously mixed Nigeria. It was his first trip to the troubled northeast since becoming president.

During it, he poured cold water on the idea of an amnesty for Islamist fighters and urged the region's tribal elders to do more to help fight the insurgents.

The blasts in the Jajeri ward of the city occurred about five hours after he left in the afternoon, witnesses said.