You wouldn’t expect a 10-year-old girl to be a suicide bomber. However, that is exactly what happened in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday morning.
Colonel Sani Usman, a spokesman for the Nigerian army, confirmed that the 10-year-old girl, along with an elderly woman, both suicide bombers , killed at least nine people as they gathered to mark the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports.
At approximately 7.40 a.m., as worshipers waited for security screenings, the two women detonated their bombs at the open-air praying area in Layin Gwange, Damaturu, Usman said.
2 female suicide bombers rock Eid celebrations in northern #Nigeria , 9 dead. 1 bomber a 10-yr.-old girl. ^ta http://t.co/Aur400iSbL
— persecution.org (@persecutionnews) July 17, 2015
“Four persons died in the first explosion and seven people were injured. While in the second explosion, five people lost their lives and 11 people were wounded,” he said, noting that while no one has claimed responsibility yet, these attacks are generally the direct acts of the Islamist group Boko Haram. A third young bomber detonated another bomb near a mosque, raising the death toll to 13. “Thirteen people were killed in the… suicide blasts,” said Markus Danladi. “The attacks were carried out by three underage girls. Fifteen people were also injured in the attacks.”
??? ????????? ????? ????????? http://t.co/ncmZvjdlbn #BreakingNews #Female #Kill #Nine #SuicideBomber pic.twitter.com/5C3qtZMmdJ
— kolkata24x7 (@kolkata24x7) July 17, 2015
Since he was inaugurated on May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari has made defeating Boko Haram his top priority. During Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency, thousands of people died at their hands, and nearly 1.5 million citizens have been displaced since 2009. Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, and the insurgence of attacks is related to creating more mayhem during Ramadan.
On Thursday, July 16, a separate bombing took place at a market in Gombe, according to National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Sani Datti , Africa France 24 reports. Fifty people were killed, and another 75 were wounded and are being treated at a local hospital.
NEWS FLASH: Suspected Female Suicide Bomber Blows Self Up In Damaturu http://t.co/eSPue1klnB
— Information Nigeria (@infonaija) July 17, 2015
Nigeria’s new army chief, Major General Tukur Buratai, was in Damaturu to help boost troop morale on Friday and prayed at the town’s Central Mosque.
More information will be released as it becomes available.
[Photo via Shutterstock]
