4 suicide bombers, one vigilante killed at Borno checkpoint

One vigilante and four female suicide bombers were killed Wednesday at a checkpoint in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state after one bomber detonated her explosives, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

One bomber blew herself up at a security checkpoint 50 kilometres east of state capital Maiduguri run by civilian vigilantes who help the country’s military fight Boko Haram.

Four girls between the ages of nine and 12 were stopped at the checkpoint in Mafa, according to Muhammad Kanar, head of NEMA for the northeast.

“Suicide bombers tried to enter and they were being intercepted for interrogation,” Ibrahim Abdulkadir, another spokesman for the agency, told AFP.

“One detonated their bomb,” he said, adding “all of them were bombers, all women.”

Last month eight people were killed at the same checkpoint when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives among women and children arriving in Maiduguri seeking to escape Boko Haram violence in the countryside.

Boko Haram jihadists have in recent months been using young women and girls as suicide bombers — a new tactic in the six-year-old armed insurgency which has claimed more than 17,000 lives.

4 suicide bombers, one vigilante killed at Borno checkpoint