Suicide bombs kill 30 in Nigeria

2 attackers at market likely linked to Boko Haram

JOHANNESBURG — Boko Haram has been torn in half and has steadily lost territory to the Nigerian forces that have pounded away at the extremist group, with government leaders at times claiming that the insurgency has finally been put down.

But two suicide bombings Friday in a busy marketplace in Madagali, Nigeria, quickly underscored the difficulty in quashing the extremist militia, which authorities quickly blamed for the blasts.

At least 30 people were killed, the worst attack in months. Authorities said the bombers appeared to be teenage schoolgirls who likely picked the busiest market day of the week to attack.

Though weakened, Boko Haram remains capable of devastating attacks on soft civilian targets such as markets, bus stations and camps for people displaced by the grinding conflict.

Like many of Boko Haram’s previous bombings, the attacks Friday in Adamawa state were carried out by female suicide bombers, concealing explosive vests under the long, flowing garments worn by most women in the country’s northern territory, where the majority of the population is Muslim.

And the attack seemed calculated to kill as many civilians as possible, targeting a crowded section of the market on the busiest day of the week around lunchtime.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Boko Haram usually doesn’t issue statements on its attacks.

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency confirmed the blasts and said scores were killed. A military spokesman told local media that 30 were killed and 67 were injured by the attackers.

Madagali is in the north of Adamawa state, close to Boko Haram’s remaining stronghold in the Sambisa Forest. The town suffered a similar attack at a nearby bus station last December, an incident that also killed 30 people.

The conflict in northeastern Nigeria has driven an estimated 2.6 million people from their homes and has led to widespread starvation, with farmers unable to plant crops, fishers unable to fish in Lake Chad and traders unable to transport goods.

Last week, the United Nations doubled its humanitarian appeal for the region to $1 billion for emergency food to target 6.9 million people in desperate need of help.

Around 75,000 children could starve to death unless donors respond swiftly to the crisis, the U.N. has warned.

Only two years ago Boko Haram commanded a vast swathe of territory in the country’s northeast.

The group set up an Islamic state and swore allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.