Sixty-seven other people were wounded in the attacks Sunday night and were being treated at hospitals, said National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Abdussalam Mohammed.

According to eyewitness reports, the bomb at Yantaya Mosque went off as leading religious leader Sani Yahaya from the Jama’atu Izalatul Bidia organisation, was addressing the crowd.

Another location targeted was Shagalinku, a restaurant visited by governors and politicians.

“These attacks serve as a stark reminder of the threat posed by Boko Haram, which deliberately targets the weak and vulnerable and those, both Muslim and Christian, who will not subscribe to their extremist and intolerant views”, UK Minister for Africa, James Duddridge, said in a statement on Saturday.

Boku Haram is Nigeria’s largest Islamist militant group.

The city sits between the predominantly Christian and animist southern half of Nigeria and the north, where the majority of the country’s Muslims live.

On Twitter, El-Rufai said “I am sad that a terrorist bomb attack just killed 20 people in Sabon Gari, Zaria”. Another suicide attack at a bus station in February killed 17 people and injured 27; and in May, a gunman wearing a suicide vest attacked the College of Administrative and Business Studies there.

A man walks by the charred remains of houses burned by extremist Boko Haram fighters.

Three bombs in Nigeria killed at least 20 people yesterday.

Critics say prominent Muslim clerics have largely failed to condemn Boko Haram during its six years of attacks in Nigeria and in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

“We will continue to support Nigeria’s efforts to bring those responsible for these attacks, as well as previous attacks, to justice”, he added in offering condolences to the families of the victims.

“The restaurant was destroyed and we saw many people covered in blood”.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a church in the city of Potiskum, in Yobe state, northeast Nigeria, killing five worshippers.

According to President Buhari, the constitution gives all Nigerians that right and the present administration will deploy all required force and resources to protect citizens’ right to freedom of worship. He said the militia killed three militants.

The insurgents have also launched a series of attacks on mosques, villages and markets in neighboring Borno state in the past few days, claiming more than 200 lives.