Two young female suicide bombers, including one thought to be aged just 11, killed 15 people at a busy mobile phone market in Kano, northeast Nigeria, police said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cA minibus carrying some women came to the Farm Centre GSM market and dropped off one girl aged about 11 and another aged about 18, both wore the hijab,\u201d said Kano police spokesman Musa Magaji Majia.
\n\u201cOne went inside the market, the other stayed outside then they exploded, killing themselves and others nearby,\u201d he told AFP.
\n\u201cThe victims were taken to hospital and it was later confirmed that 15 people died, not including the suicide bombers.\u201d
\nFive of those who died were among 58 people taken for treatment. Most of the remaining 53 have been treated and released, said Majia.
\nBoko Haram has previously used young girls as human bombs in its six-year insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
\nIn July 2014, Kano was hit four times in the space of a week by a spate of young female suicide bombers wearing the head and shoulder covering used by many Muslim women in the region.
\nPolice in Kano, northern Nigeria\u2019s commercial hub, have blocked entries and exits to the city as part of a manhunt for the VW Sharan minibus that dropped the two girls at the market, Majia said.
\nIt was said to have four other women in it.<\/p>\n
Also, More than 30 people were killed Tuesday when a bomb blast ripped through packed crowds in Yola, northeast Nigeria, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari visited declaring that Boko Haram were close to defeat.<\/p>\n
The explosion happened at about 8:20 pm (1920 GMT) in the Jambutu area of the Adamawa state capital, although it was not immediately clear whether it was caused by a suicide bomber or an improvised explosive device.
\n\u201cSo far, we\u2019ve recorded about 32 dead and about 80 injured,\u201d said Sa\u2019ad Bello, the Yola coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency.
\nThe Red Cross and state police gave a slightly lower toll of 31 dead and 72 injured.
\nThe blast bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has previously attacked Yola with suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices in recent months.
\nBuhari this month was in Yola to decorate soldiers for bravery in the counter-insurgency as well as visit a camp for people displaced by six years of violence that has left at least 17,000 people dead.
\nHe told troops he believed Boko Haram \u201care very close to defeat\u201d and urged soldiers \u201cto remain vigilant, alert and focused to prevent Boko Haram from sneaking into our communities to attack soft targets\u201d.
\nRed Cross official Aliyu Maikano and residents said the area targeted was a lorry park which also houses a livestock market, an open-air restaurant and a mosque.
\nThe area was immediately cordoned off but poor power supply in Yola meant the rescue effort was conducted in near darkness.
\n\u201cVictims could be lying all over the place,\u201d Maikano said.
\n\u2013 \u2018Deadliest group\u2019 \u2013
\nTuesday\u2019s blast was the first in Nigeria this month, indicating the army\u2019s strategy to cut off the Islamists\u2019 supply lines and target their camps was paying off.
\nBuhari has set his military commanders a deadline of the end of next month to crush the rebels, who have increasingly taken to attacking border areas of neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
\nBut the Yola explosion also shows the difficulty in completely neutralising the threat, particularly in crowded urban areas.
\nOn Monday, the army said it had foiled an attack using high-powered assault weapons and bombs in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, as well as having uncovered a bomb-making factory.
\nYola had been seen as a relative haven from the bloodshed across the northeast and last year housed hundreds of thousands who fled their homes as the militants advanced into Adawawa state.
\nThe military declared the state \u201ccleared\u201d earlier this year.
\nBut in October, 27 people were killed and 96 injured in a blast at a mosque in Jambutu, while in September, seven people died and 20 were injured by a bomb left at the displaced persons camp visited by Buhari last week.
\nTwo suicide bombers blew themselves up at one of Yola\u2019s main markets in June, killing 31.
\nThere have also been multiple raids in the north of the state, near the group\u2019s Sambisa Forest stronghold across the border in Borno.
\nThe blast came as Boko Haram was named in the latest Global Terrorism Index as \u201cthe most deadly terrorist group in the world\u201d, having killed 6,644 people last year.
\nThe index, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the Islamic State group, to which Boko Haram has pledged allegiance, killed 6,073.
\nIt highlighted \u201cthe major intensification of the terrorist threat in Nigeria\u201d and said it had \u201cwitnessed the largest increase in terrorist deaths ever recorded by any country\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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