Nigeria Blast: Two consecutive suicide attacks in Nigeria, 18 killed and 42 injured in the accident

Nigeria has once again been rocked by suicide attacks. At least 18 people were killed and 19 seriously injured in a series of suicide attacks in northeastern Nigeria, emergency services reported on Saturday.

In one of the three blasts in the town of Gwoza, a female attacker with a child tied to her back blew herself up in the middle of a wedding ceremony, according to a police spokesman.

Other attacks in the Cameroonian border town targeted a hospital and a funeral for victims of an earlier blast at a wedding ceremony, officials said.

At least 18 people were killed and 42 others injured in the attacks, according to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).

Women and children also among the dead

Agency chief Barkindo Saidu said in a report seen by AFP that so far 18 people have been reported dead, including children, men, women and pregnant women.

Saidu said in the report that 19 “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation.

Security post also attacked

A member of a militia assisting the army in Gwoza said two of his comrades and a soldier were also killed in another attack on a security post, though officials did not immediately confirm the number.

Boko Haram militants seized Gwoza in 2014 when the group seized large parts of northern Borno.

The Nigerian army retook the city in 2015 with the help of Chadian forces, but the group has since continued attacks from the mountains near the city.

More than 40 thousand killed

Boko Haram has carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who leave the city in search of wood and acacia fruit.

The violence has killed more than 40,000 people in Nigeria’s northeast and displaced about two million.