At least 19 people have
been killed and several injured by a bomb strapped to a girl reported to
be aged about 10 in north-eastern Nigeria, police say
The bomb exploded in a market in the city of Maiduguri, in Borno state
"The explosive devices were wrapped around her body," a police source told Reuters
No group has said it carried out the attack. The market is
reported to have been targeted twice in a week by female bombers late
last year
Correspondents say that all the signs point to the militant Islamist Boko Haram group
They have been fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in
the north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which have borne
the worst violence in their five year insurgency
Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said that the girl
bomber let off an improvised explosive device near the area of the
Maiduguri market where chickens were sold
The BBC's Abdulahi Kaura in Lagos says that this will not be
the first suicide bombing involving young girls, part of a new militant
strategy intended to capitalise on the fact that people in the
Muslim-dominated north are less suspicious of women
In other violence reported on Saturday a vehicle in Yobe
state exploded at a checkpoint near a police station, killing at least
two people
The blast follows heavy fighting in the Yobe state capital
Damaturu on Friday night, with buildings destroyed and civilian
casualties reported
Hundreds of people were killed on Wednesday in an assault by
Boko Haram on the town of Baga, following on their seizure of a key
military base there on 3 January,
Scores of bodies from that attack - described by Amnesty International as possibly the "deadliest massacre" in the history of Boko Haram - are reported to remain strewn in the bush.
District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims in the Baga
attack were children, women or elderly people who were not able to
escape when insurgents forced their way into the town by firing
rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles
Boko Haram has taken control of many towns and villages in north-eastern Nigeria over the past year
The conflict has displaced at least 1.5 million people, while more than 2,000 were killed last year
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