Female suicide bomber kills six people

KANO: A female suicide bomber killed six people at a college campus in Kano, Nigeria, yesterday, the fourth time Boko Haram Islamists were suspected of using a female attacker in as many days.

The latest violence came as the government announced the arrest of a 10-year-old girl with explosives strapped to her chest in a neighbouring area.

Boko Haram is blamed for killing more than 10 000 people since 2009. Their tactics have been denounced world wide, including on jihadi websites.

What appears to be a new tactic of using young women and girls as bombers will spur further outrage, as Nigeria seems unable to contain the violence in the country.

The woman blew herself up at a noticeboard on the campus of the Kano Polytechnic College, where students had crammed to check their assignments for a mandatory youth civil service programme.

Witness Isyaku Adamu said the explosion came from within the crush of students and left blood splattered on the ground, as soldiers and police scrambled to secure the area.

Government spokesman Mike Omeri put the casualties at six dead and six wounded.

It was the fourth attack by a female bomber in Nigeria’s second city since the weekend.

A young woman injured five police officers as she blew herself up at another campus in the city on Sunday.

The next day, two young women separately attacked a petrol station and a shopping centre, suicide blasts that killed at least three people and injured 13 others. – Sapa-AFP