A mother suicide bomber has blown herself up along with her baby in a terror attack in Nigeria which left 18 people dead.
The woman had the baby strapped to her back when she detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony at a crowded motor park in the northeastern town of Gwoza on Saturday around 3pm, according to a state police spokesman.
It was one of three terror attacks in the country on the same day, with women suicide bombers also targeting a hospital in the same town shortly after the first attack.
Another attack was later carried out by a female bomber disguised as a mourner at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast, authorities said.
At least 18 people were killed and 42 wounded in the suicide attacks, many of whom were pregnant women and children
‘So far, 18 deaths comprising children, men, females and pregnant women’ have been reported, agency head Barkindo Saidu said in a report.
Nineteen ‘seriously injured’ people were taken to the regional capital Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation, Saidu said.
A member of a militia assisting the military in Gwoza said two colleagues and a soldier were also killed in a separate attack on a security post, though authorities did not immediately confirm this toll.
The region has been scarred by more than a decade of violence by jihadist group Boko Haram, which did not immediately claim responsibility for the string of attacks.
Although Boko Haram has lost ground in recent years, jihadists continue to attack rural communities in Nigeria on a regular basis.
Over the course of the insurgency, Boko Haram has repeatedly deployed young women and girls to carry out suicide attacks.
The group seized Gwoza in 2014 when its militants took over swathes of territory in northern Borno.
The town was taken back by the Nigerian military with help from Chadian forces in 2015 but the group has continued to launch attacks from mountains near the town.
Boko Haram has carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who venture outside the town in search of firewood and acacia fruits.
The violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around 2.6million in Nigeria’s northeast.
The conflict has spread to neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight the militants.
Boko Haram, which has one branch allied to the Islamic State group, wants to install an Islamic state in Nigeria, West Africa’s oil giant with a population of 170 million divided almost equally between a mainly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.
The resurgence of suicide bombings in Borno raises significant concerns about the security situation in the region.
Mr Saidu said the degree of injuries ranged from abdominal ruptures to skull and limb fractures.
‘I am now coordinating for a chopper tonight,’ he said. ‘I have mobilised emergency drugs to complement the shortage of drugs in Gwoza.’
Authorities imposed a curfew in the city, and the community remained on high alert following reports of another suspected bomber in Pulka, a town just over a mile away from Gwoza.
Gwoza is located a few miles from Chibok, in southern Borno, where 276 schoolgirls were abducted in 2014. Nearly 100 are still in captivity.
Since then, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped across the country as armed groups increasingly find the practice a lucrative way to fund their criminal activities and take control of villages.
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