Civilian fighters have gunned down three girl suicide bombers who targeted a busy market in north-eastern Nigeria.They blamed terrorist group Boko Haram, who want to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, for the attempted bombing.
The self-defence fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town, local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak said.The girls began running at the checkpoint and the fighters shot the girl in the lead, activating her explosives and killing her and a companion.The third girl tried to flee and was gunned down.Army spokesman Major Badare Akintoye confirmed the shootings, adding: 'Our soldiers are on alert and commercial activities are going on' at the targeted market.
The self-defence fighters who work alongside the army challenged the girls as they approached a village near Madagali town, local council chairman Yusuf Muhammad Gulak said.The girls began running at the checkpoint and the fighters shot the girl in the lead, activating her explosives and killing her and a companion.The third girl tried to flee and was gunned down.Army spokesman Major Badare Akintoye confirmed the shootings, adding: 'Our soldiers are on alert and commercial activities are going on' at the targeted market.
Soldiers and civilian fighters have prevented many suicide bombers before they can reach heavily populated targets in recent months.However, two women suicide bombers killed 57 people and wounded 177, including 120 children, at Madagali market last month, only 12 miles from the scene of Wednesday's shootings.Boko Haram has used scores of women and girls as young as seven in suicide bombingthat have killed hundreds this year. Some of the bombers are suspected to have been previously kidnapped, including the Chibok schoolgirls taken in 2014 that brought worldwide notoriety.A multinational force of troops from Nigeria and its neighbours has driven the Islamic extremists from most of the towns and villages where they had declared a caliphate to help create an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million people divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians.Nigeria's president declared Boko Haram had been crushed last month, but there is unlikely to be a swift end to the suicide bombings and attacks on remote villages and army outposts.
Boko Haram's devastating seven-year-old Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, driven 2.6 million from their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis which has left 5.1 million people facing starvation.Last week it was revealed Boko Haram militants taught children as young as 13 how to rape their hostages.Adult fighters told their young recruits they would 'have fun' sexually assaulting their captives, according to a boy soldier who fled from the Nigerian jihadists.One boy, abducted by Boko Haram in Baga, Nigeria described how senior fighters spent two days instructing youngsters how to carry out rapes - repeatedly attacking women and young girls they were holding captive.
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