Fifty-eight people were killed in suicide bomb attacks at an internally-displaced-person camp at Dikwa, Borno state, on Tuesday.
The incident occurred while the displaced persons were queuing up to receive food rations. “It was a suicide bomb attack by three females. Two of the suicide bombers were successful while the other one was not. It happened at a camp at Dikwa, which is far from Maiduguri, while the IDPs were waiting to collect food.
The suicide bombers sneaked in and detonated the bombs,” he explained. “Dikwa is a terrible place. It will take time because these people (suicide bombers) are among them. The place is not accessible at all. Fifty-eight people lost their lives and 78 people were wounded.”
The suspect was injured in the attack and is now in custody, Ahmed said. The woman confessed that she and the two bombers were sent by Boko Haram, and she warned that more bombers were on the way, he added.
"She told the military officers who interrogated her that they were among several women detailed by Boko Haram to attack the camp," Ahmed said. "She warned more attacks were underway as the female bombers would sneak into the camp in different guises."
The attacks are believed to be reprisals for a recent military offensive against Boko Haram in its strongholds along the border with Cameroon, a military source said.
Last week, troops raided three Boko Haram strongholds, killing more than 100 fighters and freeing more than 1,000 people -- including more than 100 women kidnapped and used as sex slaves by the insurgents, the military source said on condition of anonymity.
The source said that the freed women were brought to the Dikwa camp and that Boko Haram terrorists "are pained by that, and hence their decision to send in suicide bombers in revenge."
Some of the women in the group of suicide bombers are thought to have been taken from villages by Boko Haram in previous raids and indoctrinated, Ahmed said.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @INFO247PLUS
