Five girls detonate explosives in two attacks by Islamist militant group Boko Haram, say officials
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| People gather to inspect a wanted poster of Boko Haram suspects in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Photograph: Reuters |
Five girls have killed at least 12 people in Nigeria and Cameroon in suicide bombings over the weekend, officials have said.
Police blamed the Islamist militant group Boko Haram for the attacks, in which the teenage bombers also died.
One girl detonated explosives strapped to her body on Sunday evening
at a military checkpoint guarding an entrance to the north-eastern city
of Maiduguri, Nigeria, they said. She killed herself and seven other passengers who got off a bus to be searched. A dozen people were injured.
It was the first suicide bombing in nearly a month in Maiduguri, the
birthplace of Boko Haram, whose six-year insurgency has killed about
20,000 people and driven an estimated 1.5 million to 2.3 million people in the region from their homes.
Soldiers at all entries to Maiduguri make people get out of vehicles
about 500 metres from their checkpoints and advance with hands raised
above their heads.
Cameroon said on Monday that four teenage suicide bombers had killed
themselves and a family of five when they were stopped by a self-defence
militia in Fotokol town, near the border with Nigeria.
“When a member of a local vigilante committee made to stop them, one
blew herself up, killing five members of a family,” a government
minister said. “On hearing the explosion, soldiers fired into the air to
frighten [any attackers]. The three others panicked and detonated
explosives tied round their bodies, but they only killed themselves.”
In many recent attacks, bombers have detonated explosives when
stopped for searches that have become routine in parts of Nigeria and
Cameroon where suicide bombings have become near-weekly events.
The routine searches and checkpoints now in place are believed to
have prevented the suicide bombers from killing even more people.
Nigeria’s military has reported destroying a score of Boko Haram camps in recent weeks.
Courtesy: Associated Press/The Guardian
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