At least 18 people have been killed and 19 ‘seriously injured’ in suicide attacks in Nigeria

The region has been plagued for more than a decade by violence waged by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which did not initially claim responsibility for the series of attacks.

According to a state police spokesman, in one of the three blasts that took place in Gwoza on Saturday, a woman with a child strapped to her back detonated explosives during a wedding ceremony.

“At around 3:45 p.m. (10:45 p.m. Hong Kong time, Saturday), a woman carrying a child on her back detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) she was carrying in a crowded car park,” Borno State Police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said.

Female suicide bombers also attacked a hospital in the same city, which lies across the border from Cameroon. Later, another attack was carried out at a funeral for victims of the wedding bombing, authorities said.

According to the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), at least 18 people were killed and 42 injured in the series of attacks.

“18 deaths have been reported so far: children, men, women and pregnant women,” the agency’s head Barkindo Saidu said in the report.

Saidu said in the report that 19 “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital Maiduguri and 23 others were awaiting evacuation.

A militia member supporting the military in Gwóz said two colleagues and a soldier were also killed in a separate attack on a security post, although authorities did not immediately confirm that figure.

Although Boko Haram has lost influence in recent years, the jihadists still regularly attack rural communities in Nigeria.

During the fighting, Boko Haram has repeatedly sent young women and girls to carry out suicide attacks.

The group captured Gwoza in 2014 when its fighters took over areas in northern Borno.

The city was recaptured by the Nigerian military with the help of Chadian forces in 2015, but the group continues to launch attacks from the mountains near the city.

Boko Haram carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who ventured out of the city in search of firewood and acacia fruit.

The violence has left more than 40,000 people dead and about two million displaced in northeastern Nigeria.

The conflict has spread to neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight the militants.