At least 18 people were killed and 19 seriously wounded on Saturday in suicide attacks targeting a wedding, a hospital and a funeral in northeastern Nigeria, authorities said.
The region has been scarred by more than a decade of violence by militant group Boko Haram, which did not immediately claim responsibility for the string of attacks.
In one of three blasts on Saturday in the town of Gwoza, a woman with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony, a state police spokesman said.
Photo: AP
“At about 15:45, a woman carrying a baby on her back detonated an improvised explosive device she had on her at a crowded motor park,” Borno State police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said.
Female suicide bombers also targeted a hospital in the same town, which lies across the border from Cameroon, while another attack was later carried out at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast, authorities said.
At least 18 people were killed and 42 others injured in the spate of attacks, the Borno State Emergency Management Agency said.
“So far, 18 deaths comprising children, men, females and pregnant women” have been reported, agency Director-General Barkindo Saidu said in a report seen by Agence France-Presse.
Nineteen “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital, Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation, Saidu said in the report.
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, although authorities did not immediately confirm that toll.
Although Boko Haram has lost ground in the past few years, militants 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 about 2 million in Nigeria’s northeast.
RALLYING CRY: Former US president Donald Trump has raised suspicions about why Chinese migrants are going to the US and advocacy groups worry about his rhetoric The US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that it sent 116 Chinese migrants from the US back home in the first “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes as Chinese immigration has become the subject of intense political debate in the upcoming US presidential election. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. The department said it was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
ELECTION JITTERS: After a call with the party’s leadership, a DNC member said they were being asked to ignore the party’s dire predicament after last week’s debate US President Joe Biden on Saturday attended a triple-header of campaign fundraisers, seeking to reassure high-dollar donors he can still win re-election in November despite a debate performance that sparked panic among many Democrats. Accompanying him at the fundraisers in New York and New Jersey was first lady Jill Biden, who has fiercely defended her 81-year-old husband amid calls for him to step aside. “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job — he’s the only person for the job,” she told one gathering, which featured actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among the cohosts. The president is facing a wave