Female suicide bomber kills seven in Nigeria

A female suicide bomber has killed at least seven people and injured more than 30 in northeastern Nigeria.

Nigeria

An undated photograph shows members of the Nigerian military manning checkpoints in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria. (EPA/STR)

A female suicide bomber has killed at least seven people in northeastern Nigeria in an attack believed to be the work of Boko Haram.

The Sunday blast, at a bus station in the city of Damaturu, came as authorities across the border in Niger's Zinder region detained dozens of suspected militants.

Police said the woman entered the city's main bus station with the explosives packed on her body shortly after midday.

She got out of a vehicle and walked towards a grocery store at the back of the terminal, then positioned herself in a crowd, according to witnesses.

She blew herself up, killing at least seven people and injuring 32 others, some of them seriously, said Yobe's police commissioner Marcos Danladi.

A shop owner in the park said an angry mob prevented rescue workers removing the bomber's remains.

"They gathered the pieces and set them on fire," he told news agency AFP.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram.

The Islamist militants have increasingly been blamed for using woman and girls as human bombs across northern Nigeria, and bus parks have been among the group's preferred targets.

In Niger's Zinder, several dozen people suspected of having links to Boko Haram had been arrested, local governor Kalla Moutari said on Sunday.

The suspects were detained for "checking" and had been sent to an anti-terrorist unit in the capital Niamey, he added.

Boko Haram began its brutal uprising against Nigeria in 2009 but the Islamist extremists have increasingly posed a regional threat.

The affected countries - including Chad and Cameroon as well as Nigeria and Niger - have launched an unprecedented joint effort to crush the insurgency.


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Source: AAP

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