Child suicide bombers die in Nigeria market blast
KANO, NIGERIA Two girls about seven or eight years old blew themselves up in a north-eastern Nigerian market yesterday, killing themselves and wounding at least 17 others, witnesses said.
The girls were "seven or eight", a local militia member in Maiduguri, Abdulkarim Jabo, told AFP.
Emergency services on-site in the town, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency, said 17 people sustained injuries.
Maiduguri militiaman Jabo said he saw the girls immediately before the explosion.
He said: "They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion. I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but she didn't answer."
He added: "I thought they were looking for their mother. She headed towards the poultry sellers and detonated her explosives belt."
On Friday, at least 45 people died and 33 others were wounded in another double suicide attack carried out by female bombers in the north-east.
In another tragedy in the country, more than 50 people were killed when a church in Akwa Ibom state capital Uyo collapsed during a service on Saturday. - AFP
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