At least 18 people killed in series of suicide attacks in Nigeria
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Authorities report that 19 more people were seriously injured in blasts targeting a wedding, a hospital, and a funeral in the country's northeast.
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Women and children who were held captive by Boko Haram, and rescued by Nigeria's army, are seen upon arrival in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on May 20, 2024. (AP)
At least 18 people have been killed and 19 seriously injured in suicide attacks targeting a wedding, a hospital, and a funeral in northeast Nigeria, authorities have reported.
According to state police, in one of three blasts on Saturday in the town of Gwoza, a woman with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony.
Borno state police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said, "At about 1545 (1445 GMT), a woman carrying a baby on her back detonated an improvised explosive device she had on her at a crowded motor park."
Female suicide bombers also targeted a hospital in the same town, which lies across the border from Cameroon. Another attack was later carried out at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast, authorities said. The region has been scarred by more than a decade of violence by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which did not immediately claim responsibility for the string of attacks.
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Barkindo Saidu, the head of Borno state’s emergency management agency, said in a report seen by Agence France-Presse that "18 deaths comprising children, men, females, and pregnant women" had so far been reported. 19 “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital, Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation, Saidu said in the report.
A member of a militia assisting the military in Gwoza said two colleagues and a soldier were also killed in a separate attack on a security post, even though authorities did not immediately confirm this toll.
Although Boko Haram has lost ground in recent years, jihadists continue to attack rural communities in Nigeria regularly. Throughout the insurgency, Boko Haram has repeatedly deployed young women and girls to carry out suicide attacks.
The Chibok abduction
Earlier in April, Nigerian troops rescued a pregnant Lydia Simon and her three children, ten years after being abducted by Boko Haram militants when she was a schoolgirl in the town of Chibok.
The Chibok abduction was the first of a series of mass school kidnappings in Nigeria, with many of the kidnapped, currently adults, being freed or having fled, however, terrorist groups continue to target schools for mass abductions.
According to the Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence, more than 2,190 students have been kidnapped since the Chibok attack. It also said that mass abductions had become "an increasingly favorite sport for Nigeria’s teeming armed groups."
