By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, (AA) – At least nine people were killed Friday afternoon in a suicide bombing carried out by a teenage boy in northeast Nigeria, local officials and residents said.
The blast in Gombi, a town in Adamawa state, happened in a busy market as locals headed to Friday prayers.
“A teenage boy wearing a suicide vest detonated explosives at Gombi market just when people were going to Jum’ah,” Hassan Salih, a student from the town recently liberated from Boko Haram, told Anadolu Agency by telephone.
“At the moment, emergency responders have taken away nine bodies.”
Ibrahim Buba, a member of a local vigilante network, said the death toll was “between nine and upward because two more persons among those taken to hospitals died on the way.”
He confirmed the bomber was a teenage boy.
An official with the National Emergency Management Agency, Sa’ad Bello, said details of the attack were unclear.
On Wednesday, a twin suicide attack in Chibok town in neighboring Borno state claimed at least five lives. Nigeria’s #BringBackOurGirls movement said the toll has risen to 15 by Thursday night.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bore the hallmark of Boko Haram, the militant group that has waged a violent insurgency in the region since 2009.
[Photo: Suicde, bombing in Nigeria is common. Photographer: AA]