Two female suicide bombers have reportedly killed at least 56 people in a refugee camp near Maiduguri, Nigeria, the Associated Press is reporting. The camp contains some 50,000 people who were made homeless fleeing the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The AP reports that health officials are blaming “extremists” for the attack in the town of Dikwa, located in the Borno state in the northeastern part of the country, which also wounded 78 people. That likely means Boko Haram or an affiliated group, although no one has yet claimed responsibility.
Boko Haram is increasingly using women and children in what the New York Times described in January as a “relentless” onslaught of suicide bombings. In November, five teenage girls killed 12 people in a weekend of suicide attacks in Nigeria and Cameroon. That was just days after 15 people died in an attack on a Nigerian market; one of the suicide bombers there was said to be just 11 years old.
In December, President Muhammadu Buhari said the war against Boko Haram had been “technically won,” saying the group was no longer mounting “conventional” attacks and was just using IEDs. Four days later, the group killed 50 more people.
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A man walks past burnt out houses following another attack by Boko Haram in Dalori village, also near Maiduguri, Nigeria, Sunday Jan. 31, 2016. Photo via AP Images