18 dead and 42 injured in series of suicide attacks in Nigeria

Kano, Nigeria:

At least 18 people were killed and 19 seriously injured in a series of suicide attacks in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, emergency services said.

In one of the three explosions in the town of Gwoza, an attacker with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony, according to a police spokesman.

The other attacks in the border town across from Cameroon targeted a hospital and a funeral for victims of the previous wedding explosion, authorities said.

At least 18 people were killed and another 42 injured in the attacks, according to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

“So far, 18 deaths have been reported among children, men, women and pregnant women,” said Barkindo Saidu, head of the agency, in a report seen by AFP.

Nineteen “severely injured” people were taken to the regional capital, Maiduguri, while another 23 awaited evacuation, Saidu said in the report.

A member of a militia helping the military in Gwoza said two of his comrades and a soldier were also killed in another attack on a security checkpoint, although authorities did not immediately confirm the number.

Boko Haram militants took over Gwoza in 2014 when the group took control of areas in northern Borno.

The city was retaken by the Nigerian military with the help of Chadian forces in 2015, but since then the group has continued to launch attacks from the mountains near the city.

Boko Haram carried out attacks, killing men and kidnapping women who ventured outside the city in search of firewood and acacia trees.

The violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million in northeastern Nigeria.

The conflict spread to neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad, leading to the formation of a regional military coalition to combat the militants.

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