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> 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> LAGOS, Nigeria — Police say three suicide bombers have attacked a crowded market in northern Nigeria, killing at least 18 people.

Borno state police spokesman Joseph Kwaji confirms the Friday night attack to The Associated Press.

The bombers, all believed to be female, left another 22 people wounded at a fish market Konduga, just outside the state capital, Maiduguri.

The Islamist extremist group Boko Haram continues to carry out deadly suicide bombings in Borno and other parts of northern Nigeria as part of its violent campaign to establish an Islamic state in the West African nation.

The extremist group has increasingly used women and youth as bombers, often after abducting and indoctrinating them.

Maiduguri is the birthplace of the extremist group and has been a frequent target. </s> Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two young girls approximately seven or eight years old blew themselves up in a northeastern Nigerian market on Sunday, killing themselves and one other person and wounding 18 others, sources said.

The girls were "seven or eight", a local militia member in Maiduguri, Abdulkarim Jabo, told AFP.

The attack was not immediately claimed by Boko Haram but bore the hallmarks of the jihadists, who routinely use women and girls to carry out suicide attacks, often in Borno state, the epicentre of their insurgency.

Borno Governor Kashim Shettima, visiting victims in the hospital, confirmed the toll in the attack.

Maiduguri militiaman Jabo said he saw the girls Sunday immediately before the explosion.

"They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion," he said.

"I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but she didn't answer. I thought they were looking for their mother," he added.

"She headed toward the poultry sellers, and then detonated her explosives belt."

Boko Haram jihadists have laid waste to northeast Nigeria since they took up arms against the government in 2009.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than two and a half million more displaced by the unrest.

Rights groups say thousands of women and girls have been abducted by the group. In the most infamous incident, in 2014, more than 200 schoolgirls were taken in the remote town of Chibok.

The jihadists have used abducted females as sex slaves and human bombs, while boys are enlisted to fight.

Northeast Nigeria has been buffeted in recent weeks by devastating attacks.

On Friday at least 45 people died and 33 others were wounded in another double suicide attack carried out by female bombers at a marketplace in the town of Madagali.

In October another set of female suicide bombers killed 17 people at a station near a camp for internally displaced persons.

In February 2015, Boko Haram used an eight-year-old to carry out a suicide attack in Potiskum, in Yobe state, and a 10- and 18-year-old pair were involved in a failed July 2014 attack in Funtua, in northwestern Katsina state. </s> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Twin explosions from female suicide bombers suspected to be with Boko Haram killed nine people and injured 24 in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri on Saturday morning, officials and witnesses said.

The first explosion came when two of the 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-defense fighter Dan Batta.

The military said there was only one attacker. “A suspected female suicide bomber ran into a group of men and women at the entrance while they were coming out of the camp, killing five men and injuring 11 women,” said a statement from military spokesman Col. Mustapha Anka.

Inuwe Sula, who lives nearby, said he saw six bodies evacuated and several wounded survivors “drenched with blood.”

The second blast came half an hour later and about a kilometer away when a tricycle taxi carrying two passengers exploded outside a gas station, Anka said. The bomber was driving the taxi and following a fuel tanker “with the sole aim of gaining entry to cause maximum damage and casualty.”

In both attacks, the bombers were prevented entry, which could have caused many more casualties, Anka said.

Nine bodies, including those of two suicide bombers, were recovered and 24 people wounded in the explosions were evacuated to nearby hospitals, said Sani Datta, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency.

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> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Two girl suicide bombers died when they exploded Sunday in a crowded area near a market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, injuring 17 people, rescue officials said.

Survivor Abubakar Musa said he also saw among the victims the bodies of soldiers, who were guarding a nearby electric power installation.

Officials blamed the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group that has staged numerous attacks in Maiduguri, the birthplace of the insurgency.

One bomber appeared no older than 7 and the second about 8 years old, said Abdulkadir Jabo, a civilian self-defense fighter who stopped them from going into the market. "I asked the older girl where she was going but she could not speak Hausa or Kanuri ... and appeared very unsettled, so I turned her back," he told The Associated Press.

Seconds later, she detonated, followed by the younger girl, Jabo said.

Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu identified the bombers as teen-aged girls. Earlier, officials said they were a man and a woman. There was no way to resolve the discrepancies.

Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some are among the many thousands that they have kidnapped over the years.

In a particularly horrific instance, a woman suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a checkpoint on Nov. 28. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and the baby.

Sunday's blasts occurred near Maiduguri's Monday Market, just weeks after the state government reopened the roads leading to the market. They had been closed for nearly two years over security concerns following previous bombings at the market that killed dozens of people.

On Friday, two women suicide bombers exploded in a market at Madagali, 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, killing 57 people and wounding 177 including 120 children.

Since Nigeria's military has dislodged insurgents from towns and villages this year, Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets.

Suicide bombings and attacks on military camps continue, though Nigeria's government claims it has the insurgents on the run. President Muhammadu Buhari declared the Islamic uprising "technically defeated" a year ago. On Friday, he vowed Nigeria's military is working "at slamming the final nail in the coffin of Boko Haram."

The seven-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people, forced 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis.

Boko Haram, which has one branch allied to the Islamic State group, wants to install an Islamic state in Nigeria, West Africa's oil giant of 170 million people divided almost equally between a mainly Christian south and predominantly Muslim north. </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> 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> MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers killed at least 27 people and wounded 83 in northeast Nigeria on Tuesday, local sources said.

A woman bomber blew herself up and killed 27 others at a market in the village of Konduga near Maiduguri, the epicentre of the conflict between government forces and the Islamist Boko Haram insurgents, according to a village head and an official from a regional militia.

Two suicide bombers also blew themselves up at the gates to a nearby refugee camp, with no others killed but many injured, said an emergency service official. (Reporting by Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Two female suicide bombers attack a crowd on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing three civilians and injuring 33 others.