Three girls blow themselves up in deadly Nigeria attacks

Three girls staged suicide bombings in the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival at the end of Ramadan, police said. The attacks, in a northeastern area hard hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, came just days before Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari travels to Washington for talks with US counterpart Barack Obama. The bombings came on the day the country’s new army chief was due to visit the city to meet soldiers battling Boko Haram. Buhari is expected to use Monday’s meeting with Obama to push for US help to tackle the jihadist violence, which has surged since he took office in May, claiming more than 700 lives.

Troops and security agencies responded immediately to the incidents. The situation is currently under control.

Army spokesman Sani Usman

Boko Haram have increasingly used young women and girls as human bombs over the past year as part of campaign of terror, which has left 15,000 people dead and 1.5 million homeless since 2009. In neighbouring Chad, a soldier and 19 Boko Haram members were killed in a shootout following an insurgent raid on an army post on Lake Chad, a Chadian security source said. Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said he would not back down against the Islamists, vowing: “Boko Haram will disappear one day." In the Nigerian attacks, residents said twin explosions near a prayer ground in Damaturu killed two people, before a third blast moments later near a mosque that left another 11 dead.

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