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> At least 12 people were killed Wednesday in twin suicide bomb attacks in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

 VOA’s Hausa service reports the explosions struck the Muna Garage area of the Borno state capital — a market used largely by internally displaced persons from a nearby camp.

 At least one of the attackers was female, according to witnesses.

 No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the militant group Boko Haram frequently carries out attacks in the Muna Garage area, and also has been known to use young women and girls as suicide bombers.

 Also, Wednesday, two Americans and two Canadians reportedly were kidnapped in Kaduna state, in central Nigeria, while travelling to the capital city of Abuja. The foreigners were ambushed by unknown gunmen, and two police officers were killed in the exchange, Reuters reported.

 Boko Haram, an Islamic radical group that formed in Maiduguri, has killed more than 20,000 people in its nine-year insurgency. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - A double suicide bombing at a market in Nigeria's northern city of Maiduguri killed at least 12 people and wounded 48 others on Wednesday, residents and an emergency official said.

Ibrahim Usman, a trader in Muna Garage market, said the first bomber attacked inside the market while the other remained outside, killing only himself.

"Suddenly there was a loud bang and everywhere became disorganized," he said. "I counted 12 corpses and over 40 injured victims."

The head of rescue operations for the State Emergency Management Agency, Bello Dambatta, said a female bomber attacked the market while the other attacker was male.

Muna Garage, the site of a camp for displaced people, has been attacked several times in the past few years by Boko Haram insurgents. Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, has been a refuge for thousands of people displaced by the insurgency in Nigeria's northeast.

Boko Haram, which was formed in Maiduguri, has killed more than 20,000 people in its nine-year insurgency. The Islamic extremist group has used a growing number of women and children as suicide bombers, often after abducting and indoctrinating them, in recent months.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari in his New Year's address again claimed that Boko Haram had been largely defeated. That came a year after he declared that the extremist group had been "crushed" following a military effort to flush the fighters from their forest strongholds.

A series of deadly attacks in Maiduguri and elsewhere followed last year.

The insurgency has displaced millions of people, creating one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, and staged attacks in neighboring countries participating in a military operation against it.

Boko Haram wants to set aside Nigeria's constitution and replace it with Shariah law. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Four 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.

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. </s> Three suicide bombers killed at least 18 people in an attack on a crowded market in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria, on Friday night. A Borno state police spokesperson told AP that all of the attackers were believed to be women. The attack, which also injured 22 people, took place at a fish market outside the state capital. The state is the worst affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. </s> File: At least 18 people were killed in Nigeria after three suicide bombers attacked the city of Maiduguri. Photo: STRINGER / AFP

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Three suicide bombers killed 18 people in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, capital of the state worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, its police commissioner said on Saturday.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but the use of suicide bombers in crowded areas is a hallmark of the Islamist militant group, which has killed more that 20,000 people since 2009 and forced over two million to flee their homes.

Damian Chukwu, police commissioner for Borno state, said the attack took place at a fish market around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the centre of Maiduguri at about 8:00 p.m on Friday.

"The three suicide bombers were killed and 18 other persons died. Twenty-two people were injured," said Chukwu.

Suicide bombings have continued despite repeated assertions by the government and the military since 2016 to have defeated the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's northeast.

President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015 with a promise to improve security for ordinary Nigerians.

But in addition to the jihadist insurgency, communal violence has plagued swathes of the country in the last few months, including a clash on Thursday that killed 18. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Residents and an emergency official say a double suicide bombing at a market in Nigeria’s northern city of Maiduguri has killed at least 12 people and wounded 48 others.

Ibrahim Usman, a trader in Muna Garage market, says the attack happened Wednesday afternoon. He says the first bomber attacked inside the market while the other remained outside, killing only himself.

The head of rescue operations for the State Emergency Management Agency, Bello Dambatta, says a female bomber attacked the market while the other attacker was male.

Muna Garage, the site of a camp for displaced people, has been attacked several times in the past few years by Boko Haram insurgents.

Boko Haram, which was formed in Maiduguri, has killed more than 20,000 people in its nine-year insurgency. </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. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Two girl suicide bombers killed at least three people and wounded 17 at a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Sunday, a spokesman for state emergency agency NEMA, Sani Datti, said.

Residents said about nine people had been killed.

Boko Haram Islamists have been waging an insurgency for seven years in the region to try to establish an Islamic state.

The jihadists have frequently targeted crowded areas - such as markets, places of worship and refugee camps - in suicide bomb attacks across northeast Nigeria and in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.

They have killed some 15,000 people and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Nigeria’s army has pushed the militant group back to its stronghold in the vast Sambisa forest in the past few months but the group still stages suicide bombings.
Boko Haram suicide bombers and a gunman kill 8 and injure 15 in an attack in Maiduguri, Nigeria. All three attackers were later killed.