YOLA, NIGERIA // Two schoolgirl suicide bombers killed 30 people and wounded dozens more in a coordinated attack on a crowded market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Madagali on Friday, an army spokesman said.
“The attack in Madagali was carried out by two female schoolchildren. They detonated two bombs at the same time killing 30 people and they also died,” said Major Badare Akintoye, a spokesman for an army unit in the nearby town of Mubi.
He said 57 people were also hurt in the bombings in Adamawa state.
The attack on Madagali, which was recaptured by Nigerian forces from Boko Haram militants in 2015, was the third time the town has been targeted since December last year when two female suicide bombers killed scores of people.
Military spokesman major Badare Akintoye said several people had also been injured in the attack.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the blasts bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which regularly uses women and young girls to carry out suicide attacks.
The group also regularly targets crowded areas – such as markets, places of worship and refugee camps – attacks across north-east Nigeria and in neighbouring Cameroon and Niger.
“The two bombers who [were] disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grains and second-hand clothing,” said Yusuf Muhammad, the chairman of Madagali local government.
Market trader Habu Ahmad said the blasts happened around 9.30am.
“It was dead bodies and wounded people in the midst of blood, spilt grains and abandoned personal effects,” he said.
The bombing came after Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari told a security conference in Senegal on Wednesday that the situation in the region was “under control”.
Boko Haram is seeking to impose a hardline sharia system on Nigeria’s mainly-Muslim north. Its campaign of violence has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million since 2009.
Nigeria’s military campaign against the militants has become increasingly bogged down as it confronts suicide attacks, looting and indiscriminate slaughter.
The United Nations has warned that the affected region faces the “largest crisis in Africa”.
The UN estimates that 14 million people will need outside help in 2017 because of the ongoing violence, particularly in Borno State, the epicentre of the rebellion.
* Agence France-Presse, Reuters
