15 dead as female suicide bombers target Nigerian aid seekers

People gather at the site of a suicide attack at a Market in Konduga outside Maiduguri, Nigeria last week. File picture: Jossy Ola/AP

People gather at the site of a suicide attack at a Market in Konduga outside Maiduguri, Nigeria last week. File picture: Jossy Ola/AP

Published Sep 18, 2017

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Johannesburg - Boko Haram female suicide bombers have killed at least 15 civilians at an aid distribution point in northeast Nigeria after detonating explosives on their bodies, according to reports on Monday afternoon.

AFP reported that the blasts occurred in the Konduga area, about 40 kilometres from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, both of which have been repeatedly targeted by the jihadist group.

The first explosion took place Monday morning in the village of Mashalari, as an NGO delivered aid, killing 15 people and injuring 43.

A second attack shortly afterwards killed only the female suicide bomber.

An attack by three female suicide bombers on August 16 killed at least 28 people, and injured more than 80 when they detonated their explosives outside a refugee camp in Konduga.

Boko Haram is behind a humanitarian crisis in northeast Nigeria which has killed 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million since 2009.

Since April approximately 400 people have been killed in Nigeria and Cameroon in Boko Haram attacks - twice as much as the number killed in the previous five months.

The United Nations children's fund said last month that 83 children had been used as suicide bombers this year, four times as many as in all of 2016. 

African News Agency

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