At least 12 Killed in Suicide Bomb Attacks in Nigeria

At least 12 people were killed Wednesday in twin suicide bomb attacks in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

VOA’s Hausa service reports the explosions struck the Muna Garage area of the Borno state capital a market used largely by internally displaced persons from a nearby camp.

According to Abdulkadir Ibrahim, information officer for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Northeast zone, another 65 people were injured. He said that four female suicide bombers were responsible for the blast.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the militant group Boko Haram frequently carries out attacks in the Muna Garage area and also has been known to use young women and girls as suicide bombers.

Also on Wednesday, an American and a Canadian reportedly were kidnapped in Kaduna state while traveling to Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. The foreigners were ambushed by unknown gunmen, and two police officers were killed in the exchange.

Boko Haram, an Islamic radical group that formed in Maiduguri, has killed more than 20,000 people in its nine-year insurgency.