Suspected female suicide bombers kill 18 in Nigeria

Maiduguri, June 30

At least 18 people were killed and 30 injured, including 19 critically, in coordinated attacks by suspected female suicide bombers in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gwoza on Sunday, local authorities said.

The first suicide bomber detonated an explosive device during a marriage celebration at about 3 pm, Barkindo Saidu, director-general of Borno State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters.

“Minutes later, another blast occurred near General Hospital,” Saidu said, and then there was a third attack at a funeral service by a female bomber disguised as a mourner. Children and pregnant women were among those killed.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Gwoza is in Borno state, which has been heavily impacted by an insurgency launched in 2009 by Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group.

The violence, which has spilled across borders around Lake Chad, has killed over 35,000 people, displaced over 2.6 million and created a massive humanitarian crisis.

Boko Haram, which has one branch allied to the Islamic State group, wants to install an Islamic state in Nigeria, West Africa’s oil giant of 170 million people divided almost equally between a mainly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north. — AP