Three female suicide bombers have blown themselves up and killed 27 people in north-east Nigeria, according to local militia, in an attack bearing the hallmark of Boko Haram militants, reports The Guardian.
One bomber detonated her device on Tuesday at a market in Mandarari 25km from the city of Maiduguri while two more attackers targeted the gates to a nearby refugee camp, the officials said.
In all, 83 people were wounded in the three explosions in the area which is the centre of the long-running conflict between government forces and Boko Haram.
Baba Kura, a member of a vigilante force set up to fight jihadists, said: “Three female bombers triggered their explosive ... killing 28 people and wounding 82 others.”
The first assailant blew herself up, triggering panic, Kura said.
“People were trying to close their shops when two other female bombers triggered their explosives, causing most of the casualties,” he said.
Ibrahim Liman, the head of a local anti-jihadist militia force, confirmed the details of the attack, and said that more than 80 injured had been taken to Maiduguri hospital.
A source at the hospital said a “huge number” of patients had arrived.
Nigeria’s military last year wrested back large swaths of territory from the Islamist insurgents. But they have struck back with renewed zeal since June, killing at least 143 people before Tuesday’s bombings and weakening the army’s control.
The group has waged an eight-year war to create an Islamic state in north-east Nigeria, and provoked international outrage by kidnapping more than 200 schoolgirls known as the Chibok girls in April 2014.
Its better-known faction, led by Abubakar Shekau, has mainly based itself in the sprawling Sambisa forest, and been characterised by its use of women and children as suicide bombers targeting mosques and markets.
A rival faction – based in the Lake Chad region, led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi and boasting ties to Islamic State – has become a deadly force capable of carrying out highly-organised attacks.Last month, an oil prospecting team was captured by al-Barnawi’s group.
At least 37 people, including members of the team, died when rescuers from the military and vigilantes attempted to free them.
The Boko Haram insurgency has killed 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million to flee their homes in the last eight years.
An attack by suspected Islamist gunmen in Burkina Faso left 18 dead on Monday.