Ten people were killed and dozens injured Wednesday in a twin suicide bombing in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, a militia commander told AFP.
The explosions took place in the area of Mona Garraj in the capital of Borno state, in a market frequented by internally displaced people living in a nearby camp.
“I can confirm that 10 people were killed in the attack,” said Ibrahim Lehman, a member of the Joint Civil Defense militia, which is helping the army security against the Boko Haram group.
Boko Haram, through its armed insurgency since 2009, is seeking to establish a radical Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria, which has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million.
“Seven more bodies were brought from the Maiduguri University Hospital,” Lehman said, adding that “the number of wounded was 52.”
“Two girls, aged about 13, targeted the market at about 4:10 pm (1510 GMT), which is the peak hour,” he said. The first blew its packaging in a section of little overcrowding of the market.
“After a few minutes, the second detonated its pack in a busy section of the market, where it recorded the largest number of casualties.”
Lehman’s account confirmed one resident, Dhahiro Bulama, who had cordoned off the soldiers while evacuating the injured to hospitals.
“We were not allowed to approach,” he said, “but I saw a car parked on the opposite side of the road, stained with blood and shrapnel.”
There was no immediate adoption of the attack but Boko Haram used to use young girls as suicide bombers to attack civilian “easy targets”.
Wednesday’s attack follows the killing of nine people in Boko Haram on Monday in two separate attacks, one in the Ngala region of Borno and the other in neighboring Admawa.