As many as seven suicide bombers, six of them women, have blown themselves up while trying to attack the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, according to emergency services officials. Initial reports from Maiduguri had suggested a number of people were killed in the blasts near the Muna camp for displaced people shortly before 11:30pm on Thursday.

Start the conversation, or Read more at AllAfrica.com. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Suicide bombers attacked a camp for internally displaced people and a nearby market in a northeastern Nigeria village on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more, a local official said.

The official, Lawan Kalli — who is the chief of the village, Mandarari — said that at least three suicide bombers had entered Mandarari’s market around 5 p.m. posing as buyers. One or two of the bombers went to a nearby camp for people displaced by Nigeria’s conflict with Boko Haram, and at least one stayed at the market, Mr. Kalli said. All the bombers then detonated their explosives almost simultaneously, he said.

“Our village is right at the entrance into Konduga town,” Mr. Kalli said. “That is where both the camp and the makeshift market are situated, which made us an instant target point of the insurgents.”

At least 80 people were wounded and were taken to the hospital in Maiduguri, a town about 18 miles away, he said.

Musa Bura, a youth volunteer in nearby Konduga, said most members of the local defense force were on guard at the market and not at the nearby camp.

“The suicide bombers came three in number,” Mr. Bura said. “One went into the camp and detonated and almost immediately everywhere turned into disarray. And in the confusion, the two other suicide bombers detonated in the market.”

With a large number of people wounded, the death toll is likely to rise, he said.

The eight-year insurgency of Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group, has displaced millions in Nigeria and neighboring countries and has killed more than 20,000 people. </s> Kano - At least four suicide blasts rocked a camp for migrants fleeing Boko Haram insurgents in restive northeastern Nigeria on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding 20, officials said.

The bombings triggered fires which burned down tents in the vast Muna camp on the outskirts of the city of Maiduguri, camp coordinator Tijjani Lumani told AFP.

"There were four explosions inside the camp. The bombers struck at different locations around 04:30," he said.

Emergency services put the number of bombings at five.

"A total of five suicide bombers, all male adults, were involved in the incidents, killing three persons," Abdulkadir Ibrahim of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the region told AFP.

He said 20 people were wounded and taken to hospital.

The police said four people were killed while eight were injured.

Muna camp is home to tens of thousands of people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency.

The Islamist group has continued to target internally displaced people and there have been several attempted suicide bomb attacks near the Muna camp, which is not fenced off and is easily accessible.

Aid workers said last week that the camp residents are facing a severe lack of water, compounding widespread food shortages and security fears.

"The camp is vulnerable and this worries every one of us in the camp which is the last settlement on the outskirts of the city from the north," said Lumani.



"We are the first settlement one reaches on entering the city. And the fact that several suicide attacks have occurred near the camp in recent months adds to our unease," he added.

"We are vulnerable to Boko Haram. They can strike in the camp at anytime. All the suicide bombers who attacked the Muna garage just across the road from the camp and surrounding areas came in through the city gate only hundreds of metres from the camp."

Wednesday's blasts were the latest blamed on suicide bombers, who continue to pose a threat to civilians despite military claims of success against Boko Haram.

Four people were killed on Saturday when suicide bombers blew themselves up in a village near the city.

The Borno state capital of Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group that has killed over 20 000 people and forced 2.6 million from their homes since taking up arms against the Nigerian government in 2009.

The violence has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in northeast Nigeria and the wider Lake Chad region, which has also been hit by the conflict.

Nigerian troops, with the help of regional forces from Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well as Benin, have since early 2015 managed to claw back most of the territory lost to Boko Haram in 2014.

Boko Haram's elusive leader Abubakar Shekau made his first appearance in months earlier this month, claiming responsibility for a spate of suicide bombings. </s> MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA—A trio of suicide bombers detonated at a crowded fish market in northern Nigeria, killing at least 20 people, police said Saturday.

Borno state police spokesperson Joseph Kwaji confirmed the Friday night attack to The Associated Press. Hospital officials said two patients later died from their injuries.

The bombers, all believed to be female, left dozens wounded at the fish market in Konduga, just outside the state capital, Maiduguri. The city is the birthplace of the Boko Haram extremist insurgency and has been a frequent target.

Musa Bulama, 32, said he was lucky to have survived the blasts.

“I came to the night market to buy fish for dinner when I heard a loud bang some meters (yards) behind me and I saw myself on the ground, and before I could pick up myself another one went off then, the third one again,” he recalled. “I couldn’t stand any longer and just laid down but everywhere was in total confusion.” </s> Four female teenage suicide bombers killed two people and injured 16 others in a residential area in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a disaster agency spokesman said on Wednesday.

The girls knocked on the door of a house and then detonated their devices, a representative of the state-run emergency service in Borno State said.

The focus on individual homes is a new tactic.

"Community leaders should create awareness among residents not to open their doors for anybody (if) they are not aware of the visit," Borno police commissioner, Damian Chukwu, said.

The blasts in the Muna Garage area, on the edge of the city worst hit by jihadist group Boko Haram's eight year insurgency, occurred around 1:15 a.m (0015 GMT), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said.

"Four female teenage suicide bombers and two other men died," he said.

The number of attacks or attempted attacks bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram in crowded areas, such as markets and refugee camps, has escalated since the end of the rainy season in late 2016.

Most of the attacks have either been foiled or the suicide bombers have only managed to blow themselves up.

The jihadist group has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during its insurgency in its campaign to create an Islamic state governed by a harsh interpretation of sharia law in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

On Tuesday, the group posted a video purporting to show the killing of three men accused of being military spies. </s> Multiple suicide bomb blasts have killed at least six people and wounded 18 others in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, security sources told Al Jazeera.

The attacks happened around 03:30 GMT on Wednesday at the Muna Garage area on the outskirts of the city.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at an unofficial camp for displaced people, while a third bomber was killed by his explosive device before he could reach his target.

Those wounded were taken to hospital to receive treatment.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Maiduguri has been frequently targeted by fighters of the Boko Haram armed group.

According to eyewitnesses, the bombers had sneaked into the camps late on Tuesday night alongside those who sell charcoal to refugees, who use it to cook their food.

Most of the people living there are those who have fled their homes due to the spate of attacks by Boko Haram in the country’s northeast.

On Tuesday, Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari met security chiefs in the capital Abuja to review the security situation in the country. The nearly seven years Boko Haram crisis topped the agenda of the review, according to a presidential aide. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Twin explosions from suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers killed at least nine people in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Saturday morning, a rescue official and witnesses said.

The first explosion came when two suicide bombers tried to enter a camp holding more than 16,000 refugees from Boko Haram's Islamic uprising at around 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), according to civilian self- fighter Dan Batta.

Inuwe Sula, who lives nearby, said he saw six bodies evacuated outside Bakassi refugee camp and several wounded survivors "drenched with blood."

The second blast came half an hour later and about a away when a tricycle taxi carrying at least two people exploded opposite a fuel depot, Batta said.

Nine people were killed and rescuers were carrying several wounded victims to hospitals, Sani Datta, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, told The Associated Press.

Boko Haram has stepped up attacks after a months-long lull caused by a leadership struggle in the organization affiliated with the Islamic State group.

Nigeria's home-grown insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people, spread across borders and forced some 2.6 million people from their homes. </s> KANO, NIGERIA (AFP) - Three women suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to a camp for displaced people in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday (Aug 15), killing 28 people and wounding 82, local sources said.

The attack took place in the town of Mandarari, 25 km from Maiduguri, the capital of restive Borno state, said Baba Kura, a member of a vigilante force set up to fight jihadists.

"Three female bombers triggered their explosive outside of the IDP (internally displaced persons) camp... killing 28 people and wounding 82 others," Kura said.

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-extremist 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.

Northeast Nigeria is a hotbed of activity by the Boko Haram militant group, involving shootings, bombings and kidnappings.

It launched an insurgency in 2009 that has killed about 20,000 people and displaced around 2.6 million others.

On Saturday, Boko Haram killed four people and torched homes in a night-time raid on the village of Amarwa, about 20 km from Maiduguri, according to local sources. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, two local officials said, in an attack bearing the hallmark of Boko Haram militants.

Two more suicide bombers detonated their devices at the gates to a nearby refugee camp, wounding many people, an emergency services official said.

In all, 83 people were wounded in the three explosions near the city of Maiduguri, epicenter of the long-running conflict between government forces and Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s military last year wrested back large swathes 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 northeast 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 characterized 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 in the meantime quietly 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.
Up to seven suicide bombers blow themselves up after failing in an attempt to attack a camp for displaced people near Maiduguri, Nigeria.