At least 22 people were killed and 28 injured when three suicide bombers carried out an attack at a market in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state on Friday, the official News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reported Saturday.
The attacks occurred late on Friday, when three suicide bombers detonated explosives at the Kasuwar Kifi, in the outskirts of Konduga town, the report said.
Idrissa Bana, an eye witness, was quoted as saying that the three bombers simultaneously detonated the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on their bodies in the crowded market.
“There were a lot of people doing last minute shopping when the suicide bombers hit the market,” he added.
The Boko Haram militant group has stepped up its campaign of suicide bombing using girls, usually veiled, to blow up targets in Nigeria’s northeast.
Earlier this month, six people were killed and 39 others injured in a suicide attack in northeastern Nigeria.
A New Year’s Day blast killed at least three people in Nigeria’s northeastern town of Madagali.
The West African nation has lost more than 20,000 lives in the Northern region since 2009 to the insurgency of Boko Haram.
There was no immediate comment from the military or the police in Borno state, which has borne the brunt of the violence in Boko Haram’s nearly nine-year insurgency.
At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others made homeless since 2009. Nigeria’s military and government maintains the group is a spent force.
But suicide attacks and raids persist, with civilians in hard-to-reach rural areas and outlying towns at risk.
On January 31, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at Mandarari village, near Konduga.
The blasts happened shortly after another bomber killed four and injured 44 at a displaced persons’ camp in Dalori, 22 kilometres away on the same road to Maiduguri.
A fourth bomber also blew herself up outside the camp.
The Nigerian officer in charge of operations against Boko Haram, Major General Rogers Nicholas, on Wednesday said the Islamic State group affiliate was “in disarray”.
Operations since the start of this year had flushed them out of their stronghold in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno state, which had previously been cleared in December 2016.
Nicholas called the terrorists “callous” for “forcefully using the most vulnerable in our society… as IED (improvised explosive device) couriers”.
On Tuesday, the army claimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was “running for his dear life” because of military action against his hideout.
Army spokesman Brigadier General Sani Usman said Shekau was “desperately trying to escape… disguised as a woman” wearing a hijab to avoid detection.
The military said it would give a reward of three million naira ($8,310) for “credible information” leading to his arrest.
In 2012, the army had said it would give a 50 million naira reward.
The United States, which considers Shekau an international terrorist, has said it would offer up to $7 million for information on his whereabouts.
