MAIDUGURI: Witnesses say a female suicide bomber has killed many people at a taxi rank at a crowded market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri.

There was no exact death toll from the explosion early Friday at Gamboru wholesale vegetable market, where rescuers are still recovering bodies.

Trader Bukar Shettima says he saw "nauseating corpses and battered bodies littering the ground" before he ran away.

It's the latest in a string of suicide bombings and village assaults that have killed hundreds in recent weeks.

It comes a day after the Defense Ministry appointed Maj. Gen. Iliyasu Isah Abbah to command an 8,700-strong regional army to curb the Islamic uprising that has spilled across Nigeria's borders. It has killed some 20,000 people in six years and driven 2 million from their homes.