Nov 15, 2017: Police in Nigeria say four suicide bombers have detonated in the Borno state capital and killed 14 people while wounding another 29.
The deafening blasts could be heard Wednesday evening in Maiduguri, the home of the Boko Haram extremist insurgency. This was one of the largest such attacks in the city in years.
Police spokesman Victor Isukwu says the two male and two female bombers targeted crowded parts of Muna Gari suburb. He says the first explosion went off at a prayer ground.
He says the four bombers also were killed. While Nigeria’s military has made progress in combating Boko Haram’s deadly insurgency, the group continues to carry out suicide attacks in Maiduguri and elsewhere. The group often uses female or child bombers, some who had been abducted.
Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people since 2009 as part of its attempt to create an Islamic state in the Lake Chad basin.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, which emergency officials and members of a government-approved vigilante group said was carried out by four female bombers in the Muna Garage district of Maiduguri at about 06:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).
The use of female bombers is a hallmark of Boko Haram attacks.
Associated Press