MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A young girl with a bomb strapped on her detonated in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno on Saturday, killing 19 people, while a car bomb killed two others in the neighboring state of Yobe, officials say.
At about noon a blast in the live chicken section of a market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, killed 19 and injured several others. Police say the device was worn and detonated by a girl believed to be around 10 years old.
Another suicide bomber struck in the state of Yobe, west of Borno, detonating at a police checkpoint, killing the bomber and an inspecting officer,
No groups have yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion falls heavily on Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist organization that has waged a campaign of terror in Nigeria since 2009 in order to establish its version of Sharia law in the country.
The group was blamed for an attack last week on a military base near the village of Baga, in Borno state. Multinational soldiers from Chad, Niger and Nigeria retreated from the militant assault as villagers fled in all directions. At least 2,000 are still missing and feared dead.
Boko Haram became widely known after it kidnapped about 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014. The group later said it had sold them into slavery and Islamic marriages. More recently, the group abducted approximately 40 boys and men from the village of Malari, in Borno state, on December 31, 2014.
