Two girls estimated to be aged seven and eight have blown themselves up in a suicide bombing near a market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, a witness says.
One bomber appeared no older than seven and the second about eight years old, said Abdulkadir Jabo, a civilian self-defense fighter who stopped them from going into the market.
"I asked the older girl where she was going but she could not speak Hausa or Kanuri ... and appeared very unsettled, so I turned her back," he said.
Seconds later, she detonated, followed by the younger girl, Jabo said. Seventeen people were injured in the attack.
Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu identified the bombers as teen-aged girls. Earlier, officials said they were a man and a woman. There was no way to resolve the discrepancies.
Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some are among the many thousands that they have kidnapped over the years.
In a particularly horrific instance, a woman suicide bomber carrying a baby on her back was shot by soldiers at a checkpoint on November 28. The shot detonated her explosives, killing the woman and the baby.
On Friday, two women suicide bombers exploded in a market at Madagali, 150 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, killing 57 people and wounding 177 including 120 children.
