The town of Mafa in Borno state was attacked by some female suicide bombers yesterday, December 16. Daily Sun reports that at least six people were killed in the bomb attack, including a member of Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and five suicide bombers. The female suicide bombers were said to have approached a security post manned by the vigilante group in Mafa, which is about 40 kilometres to Maiduguri, the state capital. They blew up themselves as they approached the security post, killing themselves and one of the CJTF members. Confirming the bomb attack in a telephone message, Abdulkair Ibrahim, the northeast information officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said five members of the CJTF were also injured.
“Suicide bombers tried to enter and they were being intercepted for interrogation. One detonated their bomb. All of them were bombers, all women,” he said. Muhammad Kanar, head of NEMA for the northeast, said four girls between the ages of nine and 12 were stopped at the checkpoint in Mafa, Vanguard reports.
Thousands of Mafa residents have been displaced by Boko Haram insurgency and are now taking shelter at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the town. Three weeks back, a female suicide bomber reportedly detonated her Improvised Explosive Device (IED) along Maiduguri-Mafa road in Borno state, killing eleven people.