19 killed after girl blows herself up in NE Nigeria

Maiduguri (Nigeria), Jan 10: At least 19 people were killed today when a minor girl blew herself up at a crowded market in the restive northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

The powerful explosion rocked the city's Monday Market at about 12:40 pm (1140 GMT) when it was packed with shoppers and traders. Ashiru Mustapha, a civilian vigilante, said the explosives detonated as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market.

"The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP. "In fact, she was searched at the entrance of the market and the metal detector indicated that she was carrying something.

But sadly, the explosion went off before she was isolated," he added. The latest atrocity came a week after a major Boko Haram attack on the fishing town of Baga in northern Borno State, which is believed to be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.

The town and at least 16 nearby settlements in and around Lake Chad were burnt to the ground and at least 20,000 people forced to flee their homes. "For five kilometres, I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt," one survivor, fisherman Yanaye Grema, said. But there was no independent corroboration of huge numbers of dead cited locally.

Also, there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters 19 people were killed and 18 others were injured but warned that the death toll could rise.

PTI