Suspected Boko Haram Suicide Bombers Were 7-Year-Old Girls

Emergency services, police and residents gather at the scene of a suicide bomb attack on a
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A suicide bomb attack, believed to be from Boko Haram, killed one person and injured 17 others at a market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on Sunday. According to one eyewitness, the bombers were young children: two girls only 7 or 8 years of age.

“They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion,” said militia member Abdulkarim Jabo about the Boko Haram bombing, according to Sky News.

“I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but she didn’t answer. I thought they were looking for their mother. She headed toward the poultry sellers, then detonated her explosives belt,” said Jabo.

A local emergency management official said the “mutilated bodies of two suicide bombers” were recovered from the scene.

No claim of responsibility for the attack has been reported yet, but the BBC notes Boko Haram has been carrying out similar terrorist attacks across Nigeria and has a history of using both females and children as suicide bombers.

Another bombing at a crowded market in Madagali, Nigeria, on Friday killed 30 to 45 people and was attributed in social media posts to female suicide bombers.

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