58 killed in Nigeria bomb attacks

Internally displaced people, mostly women and children, wait to be served with food at Dikwa camp in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. Two female suicide bombers detonated explosives on February 11, 2016 killing scores of people. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The attack happened in Dikwa which is some 90 kilometres from the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, on Tuesday morning.

  • The attack was perpetrated by two female suicide bombers. A third one failed to detonate hers after learning that her parents and siblings were in the camp.

  • The bombers targeted internally displaced people who were uprooted from their homes by Boko Haram attacks.

MAIDUGURI, Thursday

Two female suicide bombers killed at least 58 at a camp for people made homeless by Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency in northeast Nigeria, emergency services said Thursday, in the latest violence to hit the remote region.

The attack happened in Dikwa, some 90 kilometres from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Tuesday morning and is believed to be a reprisal for a military strike on Boko Haram strongholds in the area last week.

It will again raise security fears about the safety of internally displaced people (IDPs) and put pressure on the government, which maintains it has the upper hand against the insurgents and is pushing for the return of civilians caught up in the violence.

Nigeria’s Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, deputising for President Muhammadu Buhari who has been on holiday, described it as “regrettable that the heartless terrorists chose to unleash their wickedness on people who were taking refuge from previous acts of destruction in their homes”.

IDP CAMPS

He promised those behind the attack would be hunted down and ordered that “formidable security in and around the IDP camps in the country be beefed up and renewed measures put in place to guard against future occurrences”.

The head of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Satomi Ahmed, earlier told AFP 35 bodies were recovered from the camp, which houses some 53,600 people, with 78 injured.

He later said the other dead had been buried locally, leading to the revised toll.

“From what we gathered three female suicide bombers disguised as IDPs arrived at IDP camp at about 6:30 am (0530 GMT),” he said.

“Two of them detonated their explosives. The third one refused to set off hers when she realised her parents and siblings were in the camp. She surrendered herself to the authorities.”

Ahmed said the woman told the military why she refused to detonate her explosives and warned them of further attacks to come in the remote region.

The injured were taken to the Borno State Specialist Hospital and the Umaru Shehu Hospital, both in Maiduguri for treatment, he added.

The camp in Dikwa is currently home to people from six local government areas in Borno: Dikwa itself, Gamboru Ngala, on the border with Cameroon, and the towns of Marte, Kalabalge, Bama and Mafa.

Last week, the Nigerian military attacked three villages considered Boko Haram strongholds near Kalabalge, killing dozens of militant fighters and rescuing hundreds of women.

The women were largely from the Shuwa Arab tribe, who had been kidnapped, prompting the authorities to suspect the latest attack to be revenge for the military operation.

Boko Haram, which has increasingly used suicide and bomb attacks as the military pushes them out of territories it once controlled, has hit IDP camps before.