At least 18 people killed in multiple suicide bombings in Nigeria

At least 18 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of suicide bombings in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday afternoon, including at a wedding and a funeral, local officials and police said.

Barkindo Saidu, the director general of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, said three female assailants attacked several locations in Gwoza, a bustling town in Borno State that has been the center of Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency for the past 15 years.

The victims included children and pregnant women, Mr Saidu said. Some Nigerian news media reported that at least thirty people had been killed.

As of Sunday morning, no group had claimed responsibility for the bombings. The explosions resembled previous attacks by Boko Haram, whose fighters have killed tens of thousands of people in Nigeria and whose aggression in the region has led to the displacement of more than two million people.

The first attacker on Saturday detonated a bomb she was carrying at a wedding party, Mr. Saidu said in a preliminary report seen by The New York Times. Eight people were killed in that explosion, including the attacker and a baby she was carrying, according to Kenneth Daso, a police public relations officer in Borno. Two assailants later struck near a hospital and at the funeral services of a victim of the earlier explosion, Mr Saidu said.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has been grappling with multiple security crises for years, including mass kidnappings of people of all ages and classes.

Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped thousands of teenage girls and forced them into marriage. They have also forced many to carry out suicide attacks on schools, markets, religious buildings and large gatherings.

In 2014, Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in the village of Chibok. The Chibok Girls, as they became known, gained worldwide attention after being condemned by Michelle Obama and through the activism of campaigners who popularized the slogan “Bring Back Our Girls.”

Ten years later, dozens are still missing.

Also in 2014, then-Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared a caliphate in Gwoza after his fighters captured the town. The Nigerian military regained power in 2015 and Mr Shekau was killed in 2021, but Boko Haram fighters have since carried out multiple attacks in the area.