Suicide Bombing In Nigerian Market Kills 13, Injures Dozens More

A suicide bombing at a market in northeastern Nigeria Sunday killed at least 13 people and injured dozens of others, Al Jazeera reported. The attack, in which a female suicide bomber blew herself up among shoppers, occurred in Azare in Bauchi state and is the third such bombing there in recent weeks.

"So far, 13 persons were confirmed dead while 65 others sustained various degrees of injuries,” a state police spokesman said in a statement. The attack occurred around 5:50 p.m., local time.

Witnesses said the bomber entered the market with two men as it was closing and detonated an explosive. The men survived and “tried to flee but they were pursued and apprehended,” Alyu Habib, who witnessed the suicide bombing, told Agence France-Presse. “One of them was lynched to death whereas the other is now in custody.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the deadly blast. Authorities suspect Islamist militants of Boko Haram, a terrorist group that has killed more than 5,000 civilians in Nigeria since the summer of 2009, the Guardian reported. A Human Rights Watch report from July found Boko Haram had carried out an estimated 95 attacks against civilians in the first half of 2014 alone. The group wants to form an Islamic state even though half of Nigeria’s population identifies as Christian.

Last week, a bomb hidden in a bag exploded at an ATM near the stadium in Azare, killing several people. In October, a bomb killed at least five people after it went off near a bus station, Al Jazeera reported.

Another suicide bombing in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano Friday killed three civilians and three policemen. Boko Haram has frequently targeted Kano with suicide bombers since the group began its campaign five years ago, Reuters reported.

Nigerian government troops late Saturday recaptured the northeastern town of Chibok from Boko Haram militants, who had taken over the region on Thursday. “The town was retaken late Saturday by troops working alongside civilian vigilantes after crushing the terrorists,” a military spokesman said. “Troops are still conducting mop-up operations in nearby villages to flush out remnants of the terrorists.”

Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok in April. Despite recent promising talks between the government and the militants about returning the missing girls, the girls have not yet been recovered.