A female suicide bomber blew herself at a bus station in the
northeast Nigerian city of Damaturu on Sunday, killing herself and seven
others.
The attack took place at the Damaturu Central Motor park near the A division police Station that was on January 9th burnt down by the Boko Haram insurgents.
Girls are increasingly used by Boko Haram. Here, Zahra'u Babangida, 13, was arrested with explosives strapped to her body. She refused to detonate the bomb. Photo / AP file
The State Police Public Relation Officer Toyin Gbadegesin said the bomber made several failed attempts to bomb the military outfit inside the park before she boarded a half-loaded Sharon car and blew herself off killing 10 people at the spot.
At about 12.10 hr Hijab wearing female suicide bomber came into the park and went to the security vehicle there and she was turned away after suspecting her movement. She then went to a commercial Sharon vehicle in the car that was half loaded and the bomb exploded.
In the blast 10 people died, 31 are critically injured and are lying at the General Sani Abatcha hospital in Damaturu.
A shop owner told AFP that an angry mob prevented emergency workers from evacuating the remains of the bomber. ''They gathered the pieces (body parts) and set them on fire,” he said.
The suicide attack at a bus station in the Nigerian city of Damaturu came after authorities across the border in Niger's Zinder region detained dozens of suspected militants.
Boko Haram began its brutal uprising against Nigeria in 2009, but the Islamist extremists have increasingly posed a regional threat.
The affected countries -- including Chad and Cameroon as well as Nigeria and Niger -- have launched an unprecedented joint effort to crush the insurgency, claiming some early success, including the recapture of towns previously under rebel control.
But Boko Haram this month carried out its first-ever attacks inside Chad and Niger, apparently in retaliation for the regional offensive, raising fears of the unrest spreading further.
- Female bomber -
Police in Damaturu, capital of Nigeria's Yobe state, said a woman with explosives packed on her body entered the city's main bus station shortly after midday (midnight NZ time).
She got out of a vehicle and walked towards a grocery store at the back of the terminal, then positioned herself in a crowd, according to multiple witness accounts.
She then blew herself up, killing at least seven people and injuring 32 others, some of them seriously, said Yobe's police commissioner Marcos Danladi.
A shop owner in the park, who requested anonymity, said an angry mob prevented rescue workers from evacuating the remains of the bomber.
"They gathered the pieces (body parts) and set them on fire," he told AFP.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram.
The Islamist militants have increasingly been blamed for using woman and girls as human bombs across northern Nigeria, and bus parks have been among the groups preferred targets.
- Suspects arrested -
Across the border from Yobe state in Niger's Zinder region, several dozen people suspected of having links to Boko Haram have been arrested, local governor Kalla Moutari told AFP.
The suspects were detained for "checking" and had been sent to an anti-terrorist unit in the capital Niamey, he added.
The suspects were arrested at checkpoints on access roads into Zinder, Niger's second largest city some 400 kilometres west of Diffa, the governor said.
Boko Haram launched a series of cross-border attacks in the remote Diffa area on February 6.
Moutari said some 10,000 people had fled the violence in Diffa to Zinder, and that the checkpoints allowed authorities "to intercept those who had infiltrated the displaced people".
- Conflict spreading -
The unrest in Niger and Boko Haram's first attack inside Chad on February 13 have fuelled growing fears of a widening uprising.
Jonathan's suggestion in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Saturday that Boko Haram had direct ties the Isis group may have been aimed at raising the international alarm.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has previously mentioned Isis group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in videos but has not pledged allegiance to the outfit.
Nigeria's military, once the strongest in West Africa, has proved unable to contain the violence and some experts have voiced doubt that multi-national African offensive can succeed without more Western support.
In a visit to Nigeria last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington wanted to provide more assistance but suggested all future cooperation would depend in part on the credibility of Nigeria's upcoming general election.
The vote had been scheduled to take place this weekend, but Nigeria's national security advisor and military chiefs successfully lobbied for a delay to March 28.
They listed a number of justifications for the delay, including the raging violence in the northeast.
